{"id":435930,"date":"2026-05-20T01:38:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T01:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/435930\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T01:38:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T01:38:16","slug":"paul-mccartneys-garden-plans-pruned-after-neighbour-complains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/435930\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul McCartney\u2019s garden plans pruned after neighbour complains"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sir Paul McCartney has been asked to plant a Chinese tree in his garden after a dispute with a neighbour over his plans to cut down two sycamores.<\/p>\n

The musician applied to fell the trees at his London townhouse, which is in a conservation area. It is part of a series of works on trees in his garden, which appears in the Beatles\u2019s Mad Day Out, a photographic feature for Life magazine in July 1968.<\/p>\n

McCartney\u2019s representatives argued that the sycamores were \u201cin decline\u201d and felling would allow \u201cmore space for an adjacent hornbeam to grow into\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"PaulThe upper storeys of McCartney\u2019s home<\/p>\n

His neighbour, Reinhold Meinen, a conservative activist and investor, questioned whether the trees were diseased. Meinen, 71, wrote in an objection to Westminster city council: \u201cI am suspicious if those trees are fatally ill.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCartney, 83, amended the plans so one sycamore would be felled while the other would be pruned by 1.5m.<\/p>\n

The musician bought his three-storey home in St John\u2019s Wood, north London, for \u00a340,000 in 1965. It was used for meetings with his fellow Beatles after recording sessions at the nearby Abbey Road Studios. Meinen purchased the neighbouring property for \u00a314.4 million in 2024.<\/p>\n

\"PaulMcCartney on his 25th birthday in 1967 at the house in St John\u2019s WoodKAYE\/DAILY HERALD\/MIRRORPIX\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Tracy Darke, director of town planning at Westminster city council, approved the works to the sycamores but suggested planting a replacement for the felled tree. \u201cIt would be appreciated if you would consider planting a replacement tree. You may wish to consider Acer davidii,\u201d she said. The Acer davidii, also known as P\u00e8re David\u2019s maple tree, originates from China and Japan.<\/p>\n

McCartney has also been given permission to undertake work on a lime, a holm oak, a catalpa, a birch and a hornbeam. He applied last month to fell a diseased catalpa, also known as an Indian bean tree, after fungal decay was found in the base of its trunk.<\/p>\n

The musician was in dispute with the council over a request in 2019 to cut back the crown of a birch tree, a hornbeam and two sycamores because they were providing too much shade for the garden.<\/p>\n

\"PaulOn the steps of the house in 1967MIRRORPIX\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

McCartney said during an interview in 2010 that the garden featured in the \u201cbest conceptual moment of the Sixties\u201d while he was \u201cmaking a little film\u201d of Mary Hopkin, the Welsh singer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very buzzy summer\u2019s day \u2014 hot, lots of little insects in the air \u2014 and she was just sitting, playing with an acoustic,\u201d he said. They were joined briefly by Robert Fraser, an art dealer, who brought with him a painting by Ren\u00e9 Magritte, the Belgian surrealist artist.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I went back in the house, there, propped on the table, was this Magritte of a giant apple, with the words \u2018Au revoir\u2019 written across it,\u201d recalled McCartney. \u201cAnd I thought: \u2018That is super cool.\u2019 I still get a great feeling when I remember that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir Paul McCartney has been asked to plant a Chinese tree in his garden after a dispute with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-435930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}