Residents in flats overlooked by Tate Modern viewing platform lose bid to stop visitors looking into their homes

The Tate Modern art gallery in London
PA

Residents of apartments overlooked by the Tate Modern's viewing platform have lost their High Court bid to stop visitors to the art gallery from looking into their homes.

The owners of four flats in the luxury Neo Bankside development on the South Bank claim they are the victims of a "relentless" invasion of their privacy, as hundreds of thousands of people look out from the Tate's attraction and into their glass-walled apartments.

However the art gallery's trustees say the residents could simply "draw the blinds" to counter the problem, as its visitors enjoy the tenth floor platform which gives a unique 360-degree view across London.

At the Court of Appeal this morning, three top judges rejected a bid by the residents to overturn a previous High Court ruling that the viewing platform posed a "nuisance" and breached their privacy.

A sign was put up at the Tate viewing platform asking visitors to 'respect our neighbours' privacy'
Hatty Collier/Evening Standard

Handing down the decision, Sir Terence Etherton the Master of the Rolls, sitting with Lord Justice Lewison and Lady Justice Rose said "overlooking" another person's home could not amount to a "nuisance".

He had remarked that a ruling against the Tate could have opened the "floodgates" to complaints in "every single case where there's planning permission granted and there's a balcony overlooking."

"Over the hundreds of years that the tort of nuisance has existed, there has never been a reported case in this country in which a court had found that overlooking by a neighbour constituted nuisance", said the judge.

"On the contrary, courts have recognised that, subject to planning permission being given, an owner of land may create windows which overlook a neighbour's property."

Residents near the Tate Modern have lost their High Court appeal
REUTERS

The viewing platform was opened in 2016 in the Blavatnik Building extension to the world-famous gallery, but then drew complaints from neighbours in the exclusive Neo Bankside block next door.

Architect and company chief executive Lindsay Urqhart was one of the four neighbours who brought legal proceedings in the High Court, demanding that the platform is partially closed or screened off.

She said she bought her £2 million apartment knowing the Blavatnik Building was being built, but was unaware that it would include a free public viewing gallery with direct views into her glass-walled home.

Neighbours complained that pictures of themselves at home had been posted on social media, and Tate visitors had been using binoculars to peer into their apartments.

In February last year Mr Justice Mann sided with the Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery, saying the gallery did not pose a legal "nuisance" and suggesting the residents could consider putting up net curtains.

Guy Fetherstonhaugh QC, for the Tate, said the neighbours had been seeking "to force (the Tate) to close a valued resource, and deny to the public the right to use the viewing platform for its intended purpose, merely to give the claimants an unencumbered right to enjoy their own view".

Sir Terence refused leave to appeal to the Supreme Court and said restrictions on opening hours of the platform during the legal fight could now be removed.

Natasha Rees, Partner and Head of Property Litigation at Forsters, who acted for the five residents, said: “The leaseholders are obviously very disappointed with the outcome of the appeal, not least because they lost on a ground raised by the Court of Appeal.

"This is not a case of 'mere overlooking' but a situation that can clearly be distinguished from the type of overlooking experienced between residential or commercial flats and houses, a fact that was accepted by the first instance Judge."

She added that her clients are considering an appeal.

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