Red and white striped house owner is ordered to repaint Kensington home by court

The 67-year-old said the council only wanted the house repainted because of a 'press campaign' against it

The townhouse that was painted in red and white stripes by Zipporah Lisle-Mainwaring after a planning dispute with her neighbours (Getty )

The red and white stripes on the front of a multi-million pound townhouse in central London will have to be painted over after its owner lost her court battle to save them.

Hammersmith Magistrates Court told Zipporah Lisle-Mainwaring was told she must repaint the front of her £15m house in Kensington after losing an appeal against Kensington & Chelsea Council’s order to repaint it white.

Ms Lisle-Mainwaring denied she had painted the stripes as revenge against her neighbours who blocked her planning application for a basement extension.

Her home is in the middle of a council designated conservation area - which is a planning measure designed to protect an area’s historical look.

Local residents branded the stripes an “eyesore” but the 67-year-old appeared at the court last month and said the council’s request was “a response to a press campaign”, the London Evening Standard reports.

Speaking in court wearing a long multi-coloured robe-like coat she claimed a neighbour had then “waded into” the dispute: “I have had a neighbour who has certainly waded in as if they are St George on the dragon; perhaps the dragon rather than St George”.

The council denied the accusations and said they would have taken action regardless.

A spokesman told the Standard: “We are very pleased that the court has agreed that painting a property in red and white stripes has a harmful impact on the Kensington Square Conservation Area.

“Of course we would have preferred to resolve this matter without resort to the courts but in the end this was not possible.”

Ms Lisle-Mainwaring now 21 days whether she wants to appeal the judgement at the High Court and costs have yet to be agreed.