Neighbours battling it out over everything from boundaries and foliage to the condition of properties is an age-old tale. One neighbour will put up fences too high, another will build an extension that changes the landscape of the area, and the problems are endless. Sometimes you get a neighbour who wants to prove a point and will go to extreme lengths to do so.
Zipporah Lisle-Mainwaring was the woman behind the red and white "candy stripes" that adorned the property she bought for £15 million in South End, Kensington in 2012. Her initial plans were to redevelop the three-storey property into a two-storey home with a double-super basement. However, her plans were challenged by neighbours and Kensington and Chelsea Council rejected her plans.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea served her with a notice under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, setting out steps required to be taken within 28 days, including "repainting all external paintwork located on the front elevation white".
READ MORE:Owner of £15million Kensington stripy house wins High Court battle and will NOT have to repaint it
So in March 2015, neighbours were greeted with candy-like red and white stripes making up the outside wall of the Kensington home. Zipporah said she didn't do it to spite her neighbours but some felt dismayed at the new colours used on the property in their street.
She said in subsequent reports that if she knew how much money and time would go into fighting for the paint job, she wouldn't have done it. She told the Evening Standard that if she knew the kind of effect this would have had on her life, she "certainly would not have painted it red and white".
Neighbours at the time told MyLondon about their feelings towards the house. One neighbour said: "I don't like it. It was painted a few weeks ago. I came home from work and thought Sunderland or Southampton football team had moved in!
"Neither my wife nor myself were particularly amused by it. Everyone I know is disappointed that this has happened. I know no one that likes it and it doesn't enhance the area."
After a battle with the council who ruled that Zipporah would have to repaint the house to the original white it was before, she appealed the decision to the High Court. She won her appeal in 2017 and was given the green light to demolish the building. The saga of the red and white house had finally started to come to an end.
Now, South End Street is looking more in tune and part of a team. The work is still ongoing but as work continues, the red and white is a thing of the past. Hopefully, the neighbours who thought Sunderland or Southampton had moved in prefer this exterior of the house.
But the red and white house became a tourist attraction for the two years it lined the streets of Kensington. Now locals are most likely happy to not have to see the bright candy stripes day in day out and for Zipporah, the saga of the property she bought may be finally coming to an end.
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