Harry Potter tree house ordered to be torn down at £1.2m Hertfordshire mansion after planning feud

A planning inspector has ordered the demolition of a giant Harry Potter–themed tree house at a £1.2 million Hertfordshire mansion after months of a bitter feud with neighbours on a leafy, affluent street.

The 6.5-metre-tall structure was built in the garden of Gemma Raval’s gated five-bedroom home in the hamlet of Rabley Heath, Welwyn Hatfield district, reportedly without planning permission last year. The fantasy playhouse - which features a conical turret, a rope bridge and a slide - sits on 1.35-metre stilts and includes engravings on its ladder rungs that reference spell names from the films, such as Expelliarmus and Stupefy.

Neighbours who live in a neighbouring £1.1 million period home said they were not informed about the plans before the structure appeared at their boundary fence, and argued the build dominated their view and outdoor space. They described the lower turret as being only about 17 inches from the fence and argued the upper platform loomed even closer, making the tree house feel “overbearing” from inside their home and garden. One neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, told how the structure could be seen from all of their back windows and had altered how they used the space, including time spent in the garden with grandchildren and a horse in an adjoining field.

Council planners previously refused retrospective planning permission, saying the scale and height of the tree house produced an unacceptable overbearing impact on the neighbouring garden and that screening would be insufficient to mask its dominance. They concluded that the development would be unduly dominant and would deprive neighbours of their reasonable enjoyment of their own space. The applicant’s agents described the project as a whimsical “Harry Potter–themed castle” and proposed planting five evergreen trees and installing a two-metre-high fence to reduce its impact, but planning officials said these measures would not make the proposal acceptable.

A enforcement notice requiring demolition was issued by Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council, prompting Ms. Raval to lodge a planning appeal with the Planning Inspectorate. Planning Inspector Andrew Walker visited the site and dismissed the appeal, concluding the structure was not, in fact, built in or supported by a tree but was a significant, self-supported building. He described the tree house as having an “oppressive presence” that undermined the neighbour’s enjoyment of their garden and ruled there were no conditions that could render the development acceptable.

The decision came after a tense public process in which neighbours claimed the playhouse emerged without notification and transformed a previously private boundary into a dominant feature visible from multiple rooms in their home. The inspector’s ruling confirms that the sheer bulk and height of the structure outweighed the homeowner’s stated aim of creating a whimsical space for her daughter and her friends. The property, which has been marketed in the past as a “stunning” and “highly individual” residence with landscaped gardens, would now be required to revert to its prior state as the two-month demolition window begins.

The dispute unfolds on a street described in public listings as a leafy, semi-rural area between Welwyn village, Codicote and Old Knebworth, where onetime features such as an outdoor pool, an orangery and a garden room had not drawn formal objections from neighbours prior to this project. The episode underscores the friction that can arise in high-value communities when creative enhancements intersect with planning rules and neighboring expectations, even as residents pursue markedly different visions for their homes. In the wake of the ruling, residents and local planners alike will be watching for the practical steps of removal and any possible appeals to ensure compliance with the two-month demolition deadline.