I’m probably not the best judge of this, but I think Pippa Middleton’s continuing real estate problems are massively indicative of how little she fits in with posh society. The current Princess of Wales is the same way – within British society, there are a million little tests you have to pass to be truly acceptable to the aristocracy. Pippa and Kate flunk those tests regularly, and I’m not even sure they understand how badly they’re doing overall in the eyes of the upper echelon. In 2022, Pippa’s husband, the terribly moderately wealthy James Matthews, purchased a large estate, Barton Court, attached to the village of Kintbury. TMW James also bought Pippa a petting zoo, and she tried for years to make it into a successful commercial venture before finally giving up this year. She wasted a chunk of her husband’s money on that mess as well.
Meanwhile, the bigger issue is the Barton Court estate and Pippa’s insistence that all of the footpaths belong to her and no ramblers are allowed. Pippa, TMW James and the villagers and ramblers have been locked in a heated battle for years over that footpath. To make matters even more tacky, it turns out that Pippa and James literally paved over part of her estate to create a parking lot. She didn’t get permission from the planning committee, and now Pippa and James have been ordered to dig up the eyesore.
Pippa Middleton and her husband have been told to dig up an “unsightly” car park on her Berkshire estate following complaints from residents. The Princess of Wales’s sister and James Matthews had sought retrospective planning permission for the site on their Barton Court estate, which had already been constructed last year.
However, West Berkshire Council agreed with objections raised to the parking site in February, and dismissed their appeal last month after concluding it “does not conserve the landscape and scenic beauty” of the area.
They said: “Due to its size and engineered appearance, the development has introduced a visually intrusive and urbanised feature into an otherwise meadow.”
The car park is located on the Wessex Downs, which has enhanced protections as a National Landscape, an area of particular scenic beauty. Concerns had been raised that the site would impact the biodiversity of the area, and that before it had been developed, it contributed to the “openness and tranquillity of the rural area”.
The couple had not provided information that the site would not impact the nearby River Kennet, which has been described as one of England’s premier chalk streams. Concerns had also been raised that vehicles exiting the car park, which was to be used by fishermen and angling clubs, would not have “adequate visibility”.
One resident said: “Ample parking already exists on the Barton Court estate. Additional parking is unnecessary. This application is to move unsightly parking out of sight of the applicants on entry to the Barton Court estate to the detriment of the residents and the heritage of Kintbury.”
Another said that the car park also posed a flooding risk, while another described it as an “eye sore” and a “brutal interruption of the bucolic scene”.
In one response dated December of last year, a local wrote: “This application shows a disregard for both the law and the village & villagers of Kintbury. I hope that West Berkshire Council will encourage the applicant to select another more discreet site on the spacious Barton Court Estate to support this income stream”. The decision to dismiss the couple’s appeal means that the original ruling to deny planning permission stands.
I just can’t get over how Pippa and TMW James have pretty much pissed off everyone around them. ‘Tis the Middleton Way™. Pippa’s neighbors are furious about the footpath, furious about the gauche parking lot, furious about the faux-posh “private property” signs, furious about the price-gouging at the now-defunct petting zoo, furious about the noise of Pippa’s parties. The Middleton women really don’t know how to step lightly, right?
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.
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- London, UNITED KINGDOM Carole Middleton and Pippa Matthews (Philippa Middleton) in the stands at the 2026 Wimbledon tournament at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London. Pictured: Carole Middleton, Pippa Matthews BACKGRID USA 6 JULY 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: Best Image / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Members of The Royal Family attend The Together At Christmas Carol Service at Westminster Abbey, London, UK. Pictured: Pippa Middelton, Pippa Matthews, James Matthews BACKGRID USA 8 DECEMBER 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- London, UNITED KINGDOM Celebrities in the stands at the 2026 Wimbledon tournament at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London. Pictured: Roger Federer, Pippa Matthews BACKGRID USA 6 JULY 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: Best Image / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- London, UNITED KINGDOM Celebrities in the stands at the 2026 Wimbledon tournament at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London. Pictured: Roger Federer, Pippa Matthews BACKGRID USA 6 JULY 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: Best Image / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- London, UNITED KINGDOM Carole Middleton and Pippa Matthews (Philippa Middleton) in the stands at the 2026 Wimbledon tournament at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London. Pictured: Carole Middleton, Pippa Matthews BACKGRID USA 6 JULY 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: Best Image / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- North America, Australia and New Zealand Rights Only – Paris, France -20180527- Celebrities at Roland Garros Day One -PICTURED: Pippa Middleton and James Matthews -PHOTO by: INSTARimages.com This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact Instar Images LLC for licensing fee and rights information at sales@instarimages.com or call +1 212 414 0207 This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. Instar Images LLC reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded Featuring: Pippa Middleton and James Matthews Where: Paris, France, France When: 27 May 2018 Credit: INSTARimages.com **North America, Australia and New Zealand Rights Only**
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- North America Rights Only – London, UK -20191204- Pippa Middleton and her husband James Matthews leaving St Luke’s church in Chelsea, hand in hand, having attended The Henry Van Straubenzee Memorial Fund’s Christmas Carol Service -PICTURED: Pippa Middleton and James Matthews -PHOTO by: INSTARimages.com Disclaimer: This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact INSTAR Images for licensing fee and rights information at sales@instarimages.com or call +1 212 414 0207. This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. INSTAR Images reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded For images containing underage children: Be advised that some Countries may have restricted privacy laws against publishing images of underage children. Inform yourself! Underage children may need to be removed or have their face pixelated before publishing Featuring: Pippa Middleton and James Matthews Where: London, England, United Kingdom When: 04 Dec 2019 Credit: INSTARimages.com **North America Rights Only**
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- Together at Christmas Community Carol Service held at Westminster Abbey Featuring: Pippa Middleton Where: London, United Kingdom When: 08 Dec 2021 Credit: John Rainford/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE UK**
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- Pippa Middleton arriving for the Royal Carols – Together At Christmas service at Westminster Abbey in London Featuring: Pippa Middleton Where: London, United Kingdom When: 08 Dec 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Agree 100% in this post. The un-earned entitlement energy, the “miss me with that” from the British aristos re: the Middletons, everything. Stop fussing, love of God! Just exist in peace with your neighbors, it’s not that hard…
But may I say one thing? Look at that body language of Pippa and TMW Husband at Wimbledon. Matching hats and sunglasses. Easy hand on the thigh, relaxed…This is a happy marriage and it’s lovely to see
Yes, and also… this is the one and only time I’m cheering for the Karens of the British land!
+1000 Entitlement + Vanity = Middleton
The Middletons might fare better if they didn’t radiate a palpable sense of entitlement alongside the unshakeable belief in their own superiority. They genuinely think everyone is jealous of them, their wiglets and their butts of lies. God help them.
Ok, so I’m reading through – car park built on protected land, no permits, going after approval after the fact – and I’m thinking this is for private use. But the last paragraph – income stream? So, they built paid parking on their own property which is also protected land? I smell Eau de Trump here.
These twits were hoping for a fine and not to have to dig it up 💯 . I can assure you they will dig up the lot, consult their lawyers, play with words, and purposely make it worse or find a way to piss the people even more in the future to get it their way. No respect. Worse people, worst neighbours, just like her brother fighting with his farmer neighbour and just like her lazy sister taking public park for her own. Entitled brats.
They ought to have to do a full reclamation for their infractions–i.e., put it back to the way it was before they paved it over. We’ll see.
The estate has always run a small fishing operation – one of Britain’s best and most beautiful rivers runs through it. Their application claimed that these people that signed up normally parked at the “station across from the gate” but the station closed parking to anyone that wasn’t a train passenger so the car park was put in to provide them parking.
I see, thank you.
Still, they know darned well they have to go through planning first. And since this is a National Landscape, there are no doubt certain restrictions, studies, etc., that have to happen to make sure it’s appropriate parking. I’m sure something decent would have been OK’d as long as they followed the laws–planned parking is always better for the environment than people just parking willy nilly at the side of the road, which tends to cause erosion & could entail parking on/near endangered species, etc.
The objection to the car park includes the information that adequate parking already exists on the Barton Court Estate.
Retroactive permits do not exist in historic and conservation zones. I live in a community with an historic designation and if you do something without a permit, it has to be undone 100% of the time, even if a tree falls on your house and leaves a gaping hole in the roof.
So it seems they were going for, “It is better to ask for forgiveness than permission,” and it backfired on them.
“BUT WE HAVE MONEY”
I think money is really what the community is resisting. Too many rural towns have been overtaken by wealthy people, driving up real estate prices and making it impossible for the next generation to remain in the community. I grew up in a sleepy rural community where the Hadids bought a farm. Not everyone is happy about it.
That seems to be the attitude of many wealthy people that want to gut historic properties throughout the UK (and the US but we have such limited planning to begin with)
These idiots. You can’t just install an impervious surface without ensuring that it won’t cause flooding.
They were careless people, Pippa and Terribly Moderately Wealthy James …
I’ve lived in Coconut Grove in Florida for about 45 years. When I moved in, there was no flooding, a lot of single family houses with big yards. It’s now McMansions with little green space and cement covered front yard areas. Guess what, it now floods.
They clearly bought the place with a view to make money off it so we shouldn’t be surprised by this – they clearly think protected land that is ‘theirs’ they can just ignore the law ’cause we have money and my sister is the future Keen’.
The whole family are so desperate to be seen as Lords/Ladies of the Manor (Keen and her nay-cha Temu Boden videos) and its quite hilarious that it keeps blowing up in the faces. The aristo’s don’t want anything to do with them and even the wealthy country ‘folk’ laugh at them.
Allowing people to fish on it (for a fee) predates them but I think you’re dead on they have to monetize it. They have put in a leisure center size pool, and have planning permissions for new stables, new greenhouse, new walled garden. The fishing alone, to me, greatly damages their need for the electric gate on the property and claims of a need for privacy
And yet I thought Kate and the Midds never put a foot wrong.
Right? Can you imagine how this would be being covered if it was Spencer Matthews caught up in this?
Kate’s Anmer Hall renovation was also vulgar. The glass ceiling garden room or whatever she calls it that she added and the connection to the former stables that are the nanny’s rooms, etc. are not in keeping with the rest of the home. She did the same thing with ripping out walled gardens to put her tennis court in a different place, etc. And I’ll never forget Uncle Gary letting everyone know he bought them an Asprey backgammon set from their secret wedding registry. I highly doubt it was under 5000 pounds.
When they did zooms from Amner hall there were the ugliest plates behind them. The whole room had the shittiest decor. Faux country style.
Carole, Kate and Pippa don’t have styling sense but no one seems to tell them that.
I wish that there were pictures of said parking lot, my imagination is running wild with thoughts of how tacky it is!
You can find it. It’s in some of the news stories. It’s at the side of a public road so is immediately visible. They must have known they would need planning permission. You can find the location on Google earth. Search for Bucklebury Farm and Safari Park (the Mathews recent business venture, now ended) on Pease Hill. The Middleton parents’ property is opposite. The Car Park was at the side of a main public road at the edge of their property.
2nd reply:
The Barton Court Estate was bought after their initial purchase of the Safari Park property opposite the Middleton parents’ property. On Google earth you can see an outline of the car park which is just a few yards away from the Kintbury station car park. I’d assumed this was an add-on to the Bucklebury ‘Safari Park’ on Pease Hill but it’s a separate piece of land with several villages in between the two properties.
Updated
I haven’t been keeping up with the doings of the lesser Middletons. Pippa and James sold the ‘Safari Park’ property. I think it was within the last year. The business was almost £900,000 in debt. They couldn’t make it into a profitable business venture. Barton Court is the replacement.
Local people criticised their Safari Park venture as badly run and increasingly expensive. Families said they were priced out of what had originally been an affordable ‘petting zoo’ and attraction for children.
It doesn’t look any better for whatever plans they have for Barton Court. Success is always a possibility of course but making a complete pig’s ear of it seems more likely.
Greetings Harla,
Just read through the comments and you will be pleased to know that the middleton news The daily Fail has the article and photos in all its glory. I came across that happy event .. having to dig it up (the Fail almost with glee) a day or so ago. Mind you it was 2 a.m. South Pacific (almost Antarctic) Time! Enjoy.
Pippa and James bought a beautifully designed, tended, and maintained estate planned and renovated tastefully by one of Britain’s foremost designers, Sir Terence Conrad, and just embark on the most nouveau riche, London Russian banker, oversized and overdone renovations to both inside and outside. They tore up the walled kitchen garden in favor of an 82 foot by 19 foot swimming pool. That is the size of the pool at your local like leisure center. It is more than double the size of your typical private pool. Vulgar, vulgar, vulgar.
Sounds like Pippa and her husband may soon loose the “moderately wealthy” if they keep having these financial failures like the failed zoo and having to rip out a brand new parking lot can’t be cheap.. I find this all amusing, entitled bad neighbors are the worse but funny when it’s not you living near them.
Pippa and Janes are really hopeless in business. Pippa needs to get an MBA to learn how to build and sustain a business. Having the capital to start it isn’t enough.
James has done ok, he’s worth $2B now, at least according to many sources in the past year.
He is not and has never been worth 3 billion, you never see him on the Times List, etc. 2 billion, at various times, is an amount of money that the funds he runs appear to have. He is not the owner of those funds and they are not all his money. He’s a private equity, I am sure he has a substantial amount of money but he makes it also investing other people’s money.
The one “source” that claims that is an Italian fashion magazine. If the guy was worth a few billion he would be on the Forbes list. He isn’t.
Yeah, I never believed he had the money they claim he has. They have “a fake it until you make it” aura about them where everything is mortgaged and borrowed to present a certain image, hoping the image will transition to actual wealth. Like what Pippa’s parents did.
No matter what she does those aristos are never going to accept her. I kinda feel sorry for her.
They’ve never accepted her parents, or at least not her mother. After the bankruptcy there were posters put up around the village demanding they pay their debts.
Building a parking lot on a historic site without permission is just being an asshole neighbour. While classicism is a thing, Pippa and James have just acted like the most ignorant neighbours without a care of the preserved sites of the community. They deserve the scorn for this stuff.
When Ma pops, two of her kids IMHO will collapse beyond belief, and one will absolutely thrive.
The old aristocracy and royalty can (often) be arrogant, haughty, and treat their servants poorly, but they have impeccable manners—even if it’s just for show —they know how to use cutlery elegantly, eat gracefully, carry on courteous conversations, and maintain mutual, friendly relationships, including with the local community, even if, again, it’s often just for show.
They all play a certain high-class game, even if behind closed doors they hit rock bottom.
Old Mrs. Middleton, obsessed with getting close to the aristocracy, never bothered with her own self-improvement, nor with her daughters’ upbringing, their manners, refinement, or a real education. Kate’s bought-and-paid-for degree and her so-called “studies” were needed to snare William, not to learn anything—which is evident the moment she opens her mouth.
C. Middleton is a terrible boor, and she passed that on to her children. Her behavior at Ascot or Wimbledon is the most embarrassing spectacle. The problem isn’t her background but her behavior—as if she’d just emerged from some remote forest and found herself among people for the first time. She guzzles alcohol as if her life depended on it, throws herself at the royals, touches their faces with her hands, does it stick its tongue out while eating?
It’s awful, and unfortunately, her daughters are just the same. So many years after the wedding, and Kate still can’t hold her cutlery properly, still shoves her hand into her mouth along with a cookie, and loudly announces at a diplomatic reception that she’s going to the restroom.
The entire Middleton family has created their own little Windsor right next to it and settled side by side on nearby land, and all of them (I don’t know about her brother) are at war with their neighbors. They feel more royal than the queen (I’m thinking of Elizabeth) and are trying to rule over a community they’ve had at odds with from the very beginning. Pippa has been throwing parties right under their windows, blocking the paths, and, just like Kate, has more “private property—no trespassing” signs than there are trees in the forest. Kate evicted the tenants from her house for good, stole 150 ares of public parkland, and evicted the tenants from nearby houses.
Add to that the collapse of the family businesses—which Carole contributed to by taking goods without paying—and the fact that she still hasn’t paid for the impressive wedding cake, and you have the complete picture of these people.
Added to this is the long-standing speculation about the source of the Middleton’s apparent wealth. There was no significant inherited money. Michael Middleton is one of the four Middleton brothers who shared their father’s relatively modest £500,000 estate following his death in 2010. An investigation into the Middleton finances was published by the Telegraph newspaper in the same year. The conclusion was that the Party Pieces business could not on its own have funded the Middleton’s lifestyle.
Yeah, so — as a working-class, incredibly lefty American, I have zero to negative sympathies for the inherited-money, inbred, “top-shelf” aristo class in Britain. They love to play status games, and they often feel absolute privilege to use and abuse anyone they feel superior to, which is almost everyone. So their good opinion is not a laudable goal to me.
That said, there is definitely an equally distasteful mindset when it comes to new-money social climbers. They want to be posh, but they’re too vulgar, and too selfish and self-centered.
Plus, they entirely miss the fact that good manners and actual noblesse oblige are pretty much the only two qualities that have kept the UK aristo class from being hauled off in tumbrils, as the French so famously did with theirs.
I don’t know if it’s only Carol Middleton to blame, or if her more publicly quiet husband is just as bad as she is — but the couple have managed to raise children who have all the ambitions, but none of the good graces that make aristos even a tiny bit tolerable.
They’re hardly the only family in the UK who are vulgar, overly entitled social climbers, or as they used to be called in the Regency era, Mushrooms.
But thanks to the fact that they managed to shove their older daughter into the “royal” family, every stupid, thoughtless, cheap action anyone in their family takes that negatively affects others makes international news. Such a shame for them all, really. 😳🙄
I don’t have any connection to aristocracy but moving into an area with historic designations is something anyone with a brain would know means you can’t just build what you want. This is basic property ownership.
Pippa and James just didn’t seem to care about anything I guess.
Well, that’s the thing. None of the three Middleton kids seem to have any respect for the rights and traditions of others. They’ve been taught that the world absolutely should revolve around them.
I think the hate is more “historic district no change ever” than it is toff exclusion. See also, Jeremy Clarkson’s (bestie to the queen!) efforts to make changes at his farm being repeatedly rebuffed by the local town council. This is much more a local “hysterical” (historical) society issue, which you would see in any historic area, England or America.
Stop, please! This is (was, I’m retired now) my entire career, historic preservation. And ‘no change ever’ is simply not the case, not at all. It’s a misrepresentation of what historic preservation is all about. I’ve spent my whole career being insulted like this, hearing ‘hysterical society’ uttered in disdain with an accompanying roll of the eyes. These incremental changes in a landscape can end up with the landscape entirely, utterly changed to the detriment of everyone, and not just human beings. Thoughtful planning is required.
And it is planning, not a big STOP sign. Placement of the parking & the type of surfacing used should have been discussed and analyzed ahead of time. As I mentioned above, designated parking actually is an improvement over random side of the road parking, which can cause erosion at the very least.
Paved paradise and put a parking lot. LITERALLY!!
Now I feel like the “all their neighbors hate them” stories were about Pippa and her husband but they did a search and replace with the Sussexes and published those articles. Same how all the unhappy and brink of divorce are about the Wales’.
I looked at the aerial photos of this & thought, well, there’s massive parking lots across the main road, why is this one so bad? I see now the issue: it’s in a National Landscape! You can’t just go around paving things in a NL without prior approval, which no doubt requires environmental review. The gall of these people!
Also, what ‘income stream’ were they talking about in the article? Are the Mathews-Middletons charging access to the river? Fishing license fees? Do they own that stretch of the river?!
They run, and to be fair, Conran got this going before they bought it, a trout fishing outfit where people pay to be brought into their land to fish. The River Kennet runs through their land. It is a vast vast property, Conran’s bespoke furniture company operates on it. The big parking lot is for a train at the bottom there. kintbury station. But of course they knew and always knew they needed to get planning permission and go through the proper process. They really appear to have no clue how to manage this estate.
Maybe these two were raised in a barn, but I don’t know where you can just build things without permits and not expect to get pushback. And even less so in an area with specific designations, which they would have been told when they bought the property.
No sympathy for these entitled idiots.