Lewis Hamilton wins battle to chop down ‘beautiful’ tree at London mansion

F1 champion has application to fell one tree and prune another approved despite objections

The 37-year-old Formula One Mercedes driver wanted to have a tree at the front of his detached Kensington home removed (AFP via Getty Images)

Lewis Hamilton has won a battle to cut down a tree at his west London home, after the council approved an application despite being urged to block the proposed felling.

The 37-year-old Formula One Mercedes driver wanted to have a sugarplum (Amelanchier) tree at the front of his detached Kensington home removed and a magnolia tree at the rear pruned.

Kensington and Chelsea council ruled earlier this month that the work could be carried out despite appeals to save the trees.

One person who described themselves as a frequent visitor to the street said “removal of trees like these can only be to the detriment of the area. I dread to think that these beautiful trees may be removed to make space for extension or other structures”.

A second objector described the application to cut down the tree as “frivolous” and said its “removal will be detrimental to Kensington and London in general, which is suffering from increasingly worse air quality”.

But a planning decision showed the council had raised no objection to the felling, with its planning director saying the decision was made on the basis that the works were “in the interests of good arboricultural practice”.

The approval letter stated only that the council expected to see a “small replacement ornamental tree such as a birch, cherry, Amelanchier, Magnolia, Parrotia, or ornamental maple planted in a like for like or suitable position”.

The letter added that the replacement tree should be planted in the next planting season (from 1 November to 31 March) following the removal of the existing tree.

Hamilton is understood to been advised by professional tree surgeons that the tree was dying, and has since replaced it with a cherry tree.

An Amelanchier in bloom [file photo] (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The work to the gardens of Hamilton’s house – which sold for more than £16m in 2018, according to Land Registry files – came two years after the seven-times F1 world champion withdrew plans for a new adjoining summer house after a neighbouring artists’ studio complained that it would block their light.

Pembroke Studios, which has been used by artists including David Hockney, wrote: “As the owners of these grade II listed buildings and as working artists who depend on natural daylight, our working and living conditions would be seriously disturbed by the plan, as currently described.

“It is also a concern that [the] studios continue to be attractive to individual artists, or art institutions, and this plan diminishes their appeal. Light is an essential condition of art.”