Man who installed 2.8-TON chunk of the Berlin Wall in his garden sparks furious neighbour row

A MAN who installed a huge chunk of the Berlin Wall in his garden has sparked a furious row with neighbours. Steven Thorpe, 65, put the... A MAN who installed a huge chunk of the Berlin Wall in his garden has sparked a furious row with neighbours. Steven Thorpe, 65, put the 2.8-tonne, 3.1-metre tall portion of the famous wall in the back of his home in Herne Hill, South London, in February this year. Advertisement But he is now being probed by Southwark Council after a neighbour pointed out he did not have planning permission and complained. Steven, a property developer, says he did not realise he needed permission and is now hoping the authority will give him the green light retrospectively. He says children from the neighbourhood come over to see the wall and he’s even printed a pamphlet with information. Steven said: “Most of my neighbours seem to be very supportive of it. “Just as we were finished installing it, we worked all day, at about 9 o’clock at night, it was pouring down with rain, we’d just got in position and [a neighbour] came down and said ‘what’s that?’ “I said ‘it’s a piece of the Berlin Wall’ and he said ‘did you ask permission?’ I said ‘I didn’t think I needed to, it’s a piece of artwork’.” Advertisement “I honestly didn’t realise I needed planning permission.” Neighbours on nearby Winterbrook Road said today that they don’t like the wall because they can see it from their gardens. Felix Lord, 19, has temporarily moved into his grandmother’s home to help look after her and said: “It looks ugly, it looks like a slab of concrete. “He said it was an art installation, and then when people complained he was asked about it and said it was for the local children or something. “It’s not, I don’t know what that’s about. It just ruins the character and the view of the gardens really.” Advertisement He added: “It’s just bizarre, I don’t know what to think about it. I don’t know why he’s done it. “There’s pictures of the front, and it’s just sprayed with graffiti and stuff – it’s quite ugly, though I appreciate that it’s original.” Olly, 18, who lives next door to Felix said he thought the structure was “bloody ugly” – although he did admit he liked the historical significance. He said: “It’s just a slab. We all agree in the house that it totally ruins the garden, because for us, when we look out into our garden it’s right behind it. “It sits above all the other plants in our garden, so it’s quite noticeable. From a historical point of view, I think it’s bloody sick – I really like it. Advertisement “It’s the height that’s the problem. Also, I think there were questions about the safety behind it.” Steven used to visit Germany between 1986 and 1991, when his team, Clifton Rugby Club, used to play against the British Army based there. He said the process of getting the wall from Germany to the UK took two years, due to red-tape and “a lot of paperwork” caused by applications for export and import licensing, and transport logistics. He arrived in Berlin for one visit just days after the official fall of the wall in 1989 before buying a section of the wall from an east German farmer for an undisclosed sum. After filling out import and export documents, the section of the wall was put on a lorry and arrived in the UK by ferry. Advertisement He then built a ramp and took down railings to get it from the street and into his garden, where it was installed with the help of scaffolding. Steven said: “The most historically significant event in my life, in our lives, is the fall of the wall. It’s massive.” He has since planted espalier trees in an effort to reduce the impact on his frustrated neighbours, saying “I don’t want to cause an argument”. However, he plans to eventually alter the structure, which is lit at night, if he gets planning permission – to make it look more authentic to how it looked in situ. A Southwark Council spokesperson said: “We have received a planning complaint about a section of wall installed in Dulwich. Advertisement “We will investigate the complaint and take any appropriate action in line with the national planning process.” The Berlin Wall was a 155-kilometer (96-mile) barrier built by East Germany in August 1961 to prevent its citizens from fleeing to the West and stood until November 1989.

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