English film director Guy Ritchie has won a battle with conservationists to build a temperature controlled wine cellar at his £9m country estate in Wiltshire.
As reported by the Daily Mail, Wiltshire Council gave the plans for the cellar, which will include a £3,650 air conditioning unit, the go-ahead on Tuesday.
Ritchie intends to build the cellar in a disused underground water storage area underneath an outbuilding at his 1,200-acre Ashcombe estate near Salisbury.
The water tank historically held the water supply for what was originally a brew-house on the estate.
Ritchie plans to construct an underground link from the cellar to the house accessed via a new stairway below the existing staircase in the main entrance hall.
The underground tunnel would be covered in the same red brick as the cellar and would be accessible by a small hatch from the main house.
Archaeologists warned council planners that the development could have a significant impact on the 19th century property.
However, in a planning report, executive director Alistair Cunningham said: “The proposed development relates to an existing underground structure that has no visual impact within the immediate or wider surrounding area.
“It is considered the proposed conversion with new external access would not have an undue impact on the character and setting of listed buildings.”
The Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels director was given the Grade II-listed estate as part of his £50m divorce settlement from Madonna in 2008 after they bought it together in 2001. Ritchie lives at the property, which boasts a distillery and a microbrewery, with his wife Jacqui.
