Charles speaks out on Chelsea Barracks

Prince Charles intervened in Richard Rogers’ Chelsea Barracks development in order to “draw a line in the sand” over the quality of development in the capital, he said today.

The Prince of Wales, talking for the first time about the collapse of the Candy & Candy-sponsored scheme in an interview in Vanity Fair, also branded the designs as “insane”.  

He said: “It just seemed to me that you have to start drawing lines in the sand about how much London is going to be mucked about with. I’d seen some of the plans and I thought, this seems insane.”

He defends his actions in the piece, and also appears to imply that he has, as has been widely alleged, intervened regularly in other schemes.

He said: “I just wrote a letter – a confidential letter to somebody I happen to know. I didn’t do anything in public. It only came into play when they, for some reason or other, leaked my letter. Frequently, I’ve written letters to people that they pay no attention to at all.”