Soho House Billionaire’s ‘Grotesque’ Mansion Denied Again

The executive chairman of Soho House, Ronald Burkle, has had an application rejected for the second time to build a mansion in a village in the English Cotswolds. The 72-year-old businessman was hoping to build a six-bedroom country house on nearly 120 acres of farmland, which would have included a gun room, wine store, stables, gardens, pool house, and a solar farm, as well as a new lake. The village of Little Tew, where Burkle planned to build his mansion, currently consists of around 150 houses and a church. The first rejection for the Roman Pantheon-inspired mansion came in 2022, as the design was not deemed a “truly outstanding development.” One resident of Little Tew said the plans were “more suited to Disneyland than the village,” and another called it “truly outstanding grotesquery,” The Independent reported. In response to resident critiques, Burkle told The Daily Mail, “My English grandmother taught me, ‘If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all,’ so I won’t react to comments from people I’ve never met.” Planners turned down Burkle’s second application, as it would bring “substantial harm” to the conservation area. In 2020, Burkle bought Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch for $22 million. “I tend to have too many houses,” he told The Wall Street Journal after buying Jackson’s estate, refusing to disclose the “non-defensible” number he owns.