Soho House billionaire in row with Cotswolds locals over ‘ludicrous’ mansion plans

US investor’s desired dwelling in Oxfordshire countryside ‘more suited to Disneyland’

The billionaire behind Soho House is locked in a planning row with villagers over his plans for a Cotswolds mansion.
Ron Burkle has faced significant backlash after submitting an application to build the country home in Oxfordshire.
There are around 25 objections logged on the official application, with one nearby homeowner describing the plans as “grotesque”.
Planning documents state Mr Burkle intends to build a “new country house set within gardens with the provision of various ancillary buildings”. The property is to be built in Little Tew, less than three miles from Soho House’s countryside outpost, Soho Farmhouse.
The plans include: construction of a swimming pool and pool pavilion; a stables with a courtyard; a staff flat; a new lake; and solar panels.
In a formal objection, one resident wrote: “Rather than being a development of ‘truly outstanding quality’, I believe it to be a proposal of truly outstanding grotesquery. Adjectives which many have voiced and which seem more appropriate would be ‘ludicrous’ and ‘monstrous’.”
Mr Burkle, a Californian investor behind a string of deals involving US supermarkets, bought a majority stake in Soho House in 2012 and serves as executive chairman.
The chain runs more than 40 clubs from Nashville, in the US, to Bangkok, in Thailand. Annual membership in the UK costs as much as £2,950.
Mr Burkle’s initial plans for his Little Tew property were rejected in 2022 for failing to represent a “truly outstanding development” and not meeting specific planning criteria.
He has now reapplied to West Oxfordshire district council for the development, which will sit on 4.4 hectares of farmland between Banbury and Chipping Norton.
One objector branded Mr Burkle a “very deep-pocketed, ruthless and unpleasant developer” in her objection to the plans and added that the new application did not significantly differ from the previous rejected iteration.
Another opponent of the scheme said it would be more suited to Disneyland than Little Tew. She wrote: “The new design continues to be a pastiche. It takes design elements from numerous stately homes, large public buildings and Oxford colleges, and amalgamates too many features into a design more suited to Disneyland.”
Little Tew parish council described the project as “unwarranted, unsustainable and unsuitable greenfield development”.
An objection letter from the organisation reads: “The Little Tew Parish meeting calls upon West Oxfordshire district council to reject on the grounds that it remains an unwarranted, unsustainable and unsuitable greenfield development that runs counter to the policies of the West Oxfordshire 2031 Local Plan and the National Planning Policy Framework 2023.”
Other reasons for refusing the proposals included the potential harm it posed to the natural environment and disruption the construction project would cause to locals and wildlife.
The site is located to the south of Banbury Road and comprises eight fields of differing sizes, six used for intensive arable cultivation, one as permanent pasture and the remaining one reverted from arable to grassland.
Mr Burkle was contacted for comment.