The Supreme Court has today handed down a landmark decision in Fearn & Others v Board and Trustees of the Tate Gallery [2023] UKSC 4.
Forsters has acted for a group of four leaseholders at Neo Bankside, a development directly opposite a viewing gallery at the Tate Modern, since 2017. They brought a claim against the Tate arguing that, by allowing its visitors to view into their apartments from the gallery, the Tate was committing a nuisance.
In their long awaited decision the Supreme Court Justices (by a majority) agree and the judgment, which runs to 186 pages, robustly confirms that the well-established principles of the common law of nuisance are sufficient to protect the leaseholders from “constant observation from the Tate’s viewing gallery for much of the day, every day of the week”.
A summary of the decision and this reassertion of the protection afforded by the common law to privacy in the home can be found here
Natasha Rees and Sarah Heatley of Forsters LLP, Tom Weekes KC and Richard Moules, both of Landmark Chambers and Jacob Dean of 5RB Chambers represented the leaseholders.
“It is not difficult to imagine how oppressive living in such circumstances would feel for any ordinary person - much like being on display in a zoo. It is hardly surprising that the judge concluded that this level of visual intrusion would reasonably be regarded by a homeowner as a material intrusion into the privacy of their living accommodation."
https://www.supremecourt.uk/press-summary/uksc-2020-0056.html
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