Duke baulks at Candy brothers’ plans for Chelsea Barracks

The Duke of Westminster has no reason to like Christian and Nick Candy, the two Johnny-come-latelys who are challenging him for his crown as the London's most prominent property developer. Perhaps this is why he has chosen to round on the brothers, who trade under the name Candy & Candy, for their proposed residential development on a swathe of land in Belgravia, formerly the Chelsea Barracks, which has been designed for them by the modernist architect Lord Rogers.

The Duke has not commented on the development himself, leaving that to a spokesman for his £7bn property company, Grosvenor Estates. In a letter to Westminster Council's chief planner, Grosvenor director Nigel Hughes has outlined his boss's objections, claiming that the scheme was "right neither for the site, for the future occupiers, for the existing neighbours nor the City of Westminster."

The Duke's man added that while existing homes in the area were brick-built, pitched-roof houses of up to three storeys, the designs by Lord Rogers were typical of the industrial look he favours, mainly metal-clad and "more akin to office complexes". He also said that the 13-storey buildings, which will include 638 flats and a proposed 108-room hotel and restaurant, were "monotonous, repetitive, totally out of scale and out of context".

Critics of Lord Roger's architectural style will agree that the Duke has a point about the development, which is being financed by the Qatar royal family who brought the plot last year for £1bn off the Ministry of Defence. This is certainly the view of local residents. James Wright, the chairman of the Belgravia Residents’ Association, and a member of BOG (the Barracks Opposition Group), said: "This site provided a rare chance to celebrate the best in a beautiful corner of this city. Instead, it looks like they're replacing one barracks with another. I am particularly appalled by the design of the social housing, which looks exactly like the slab blocks built by councils in the Sixties. Have we learned nothing since making those mistakes?" ·