Hogwarts hullabaloo: Harry Potter producer spends three years transforming his £11m home... and the neighbours are fuming

By Jonathan Petre for The Mail on Sunday
Updated: 06:34 EDT, 6 February 2011

After buying the 19th Century house, David Heyman (pictured here with Emma Watson) set about a lavish refit of the vast three-storey building

It is a mansion almost as grand and as Gothic as Hogwarts itself - but neighbours of Harry Potter movie producer David Heyman have been left far from spellbound by the extensive building work he has been carrying out on the £11 million home.

They say the lavish refit of the vast three-storey building - complete with domed ceiling and octagonal ballroom - is disrupting their lives in the exclusive street.

Mr Heyman, 49, and his interior designer wife Rose Uniacke have added a swimming pool and Jacuzzi, a winter garden and an elaborate glass extension to the imposing Grade II listed building, which locals compare to the fictional School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

After buying the 19th Century house in Pimlico, Central London, Ms Uniacke said: ‘It’s a rather crazy house with huge potential.’

But releasing that potential has led to a flurry of complaints to Westminster Council, prompting officials to pay a visit.

Margaret Colville, whose home backs on to the property, said: ‘I made a complaint because building work was just non-stop.

It was awful.’ Stuart Aird, 33, an audio-visual consultant who lives in a nearby flat, added that the foundations had ‘shaken violently’ as the family installed a geothermal energy system to extract heat from the earth.

He said: ‘That meant they were drilling large holes into the ground, so you couldn’t fail to hear it. I called Westminster Council to complain that there was noise very early in the morning. They even had very bright floodlights late at night. Even the Jacuzzi pump is loud because it’s in the garden.’

Moira Farthing, who lives opposite, said: ‘The scaffolding was there for a long time. It was up and down, up and down. Building was constantly going on and, because of the scale of the works, builders took up parking bays, which was annoying. There are still builders around carrying out some kind of work.’

Another neighbour, who did not wish to be named, said: ‘They started building at 7am some days, which is an outrageous hour. The council came round and told them they had to start later.

Mr Heyman and his interior designer wife Rose Uniacke have added a swimming pool and Jacuzzi, a winter garden and an elaborate glass extension to the imposing Grade II listed building, which locals compare to the fictional School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

‘It seemed they would never get it finished and work is still being done now. Everyone locally refers to it as Hogwarts as it’s so dark and gothic.’

Rosemarie MacQueen, Westminster Council’s Built Environment director, said: ‘We have received seven complaints about the development of the property going back to 2008. No planning regulations have been breached and issues relating to noise were dealt with immediately.’

The building work has caused other problems, with one builder reportedly filing a High Court writ last year claiming Mr Heyman - who produced all the Harry Potter movies after acquiring the rights to the J. K. Rowling books in 1999 - had not paid the full cost of the £3 million extension.

It is thought that he is contesting the £150,000 claim.

The ivy-clad mansion was originally commissioned by Scottish society portrait artist James Rannie Swinton in 1859 to impress his rich clients.

Dancer Isadora Duncan used one room as a studio and, more recently, it housed the Grosvenor School of Modern Art.

Hogwarts in one of the hit Harry Potter films