Camden has been asked to approve plans for the development near Hampstead Cricket Club

A RED carpet alliance has formed in West Hampstead against plans to build a modern home next to a cricket pitch.

National treasures Dame Emma Thompson, Jim Broadbent, Imelda Staunton and Jim Carter are among the objectors calling on the Town Hall to throw out the plans for a plot behind the homes in Crediton Hill.

They say the development goes against the area’s Arts and Crafts-style architecture, while questions have been raised over whether the new home will be overlooking a school’s PE lessons.

Paperwork submitted to the planning department and published on the council’s website for public view shows how Daniel and Sendi Young want permission to demolish a 1960s-built one- storey block next to Hampstead Cricket Club pitch and replace it with a modern, aluminium- clad design.

The new home would boast space for the couple to work, four bedrooms, a play room, a sun terrace and an open-plan ground-floor ­living, dining and kitchen area.

In his letter of objection, actor Greg Wise – also signed by his wife, Dame Emma, said the proposed house would fit in well in “Malibu but not West Hampstead”.

Their letter added: “This proposed building is as out of keeping with this Arts and Crafts area as it is possible to imagine. I have no inherent issues with modern design, but like planting trees – the right design in the right place. This is the wrong design in the wrong place.”

Mr Wise – who studied architecture before becoming an actor – claimed the house would be in the sight line of cricket club batters and would need protection to stop players hitting sixes through the new house’s windows.

He added: “The building is in direct line of any driving shots – of which there are many in the game – meaning, I assume, that heavy netting would have to be erected in front of the building.”

Greg Wise studied architecture before becoming an actor

Downton Abbey star Mr Carter and his wife, actor Imelda Staunton, told the Town Hall: “The view from the cricket pitch will be a large, looming three- storey aluminium and glass industrial shed, which is totally out of keeping.”

Mr Carter, who has lived in the street for three decades, said the couple’s “chief passion is our garden”, adding: “We garden organically and sustainably with wildlife at the front of our minds in terms of planting and provision of habitat.

The proposed building represents a serious threat to our ability to enjoy our garden and a serious threat to the plants and creatures who share it with us.” The couple added plans to cut down six hornbeam trees were also unacceptable. Jim Broadbent, star of such films as Moulin Rouge, Harry Potter, Brazil and the Paddington series, warned that if the bulldozers got the green light it could lead the way for similar controversial home improvement schemes.

He added: “It would set a dangerous precedent for future applications which would radically alter the unique character of the area.”

Jim Carter in Downton Abbey

The cricket pitch is used as a sports ground for South Hampstead School during the day – and the school’s trust has raised concerns that the windows will face directly onto their pupils’ lessons. Agents for the applicants held a consultation with neighbours in March and say they have tweaked designs to respond to worries.

Architects Scenario said the plans will create a “contemporary yet sustainable family home. Conscious of the Arts and Crafts style which is a prominent feature of the area, the new dwelling does not try and compete with this but rather offers a modern building that is lightweight yet durable, and clearly of its time.”

Equipped with the latest in green technology, the proposals show a green roof system and ground-source heat pumps. Inside, the home will have step-free access, and architects say their brief was to create an “open-plan, modern family home.”

The application adds: “The proposal will be single storey only, not extend beyond the footprint of the host building nor have any impact on the character and amenity of the area or the architectural character of the proposed building or the significance of heritage assets.”

Calling the plans relatively minor in scale, the architects said the current building adds nothing to the area, while the new home cannot be seen from the street. On the contemporary design,

Scenario said: “The proposals do not seek to copy or pastiche the Arts and Craft buildings on Crediton Hill. This would be a wrong approach. The proposal can be considered to be an example of 21st-century domestic architecture borne out of contemporary use of materials and driven by sustainability principles; a modern contribution to quirky character.”

The agents for Mr and Mrs Young have been approached for comment.

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