Celebrities are lining up to save a much-loved Chelsea restaurant locked in noise row

Published: 23:00, 16 July 2026 | Updated: 02:12, 17 July 2026 Homely Italian restaurant La Famiglia has been a Chelsea favourite for more than half a century for everyone from Princess Diana, who dined there with Prince William a few weeks before she died, to Kate Moss. But the future of the discreet west London venue is now in jeopardy after raising the wrath of one disgruntled neighbour, who has instigated a licensing review. The row centres on the garden room which backs on to residential properties and was extended in the early 1980s. One neighbour, who started renting a flat in a house adjoining the restaurant in 2024, began lodging complaints with the local council by January the following year. La Famiglia has a licence for the garden until midnight, but hastily restricted service to 11pm to appease the neighbour. They also directed a member of staff to act as 'noise marshal' every night, telling customers to quieten down if things became too rowdy. Those two measures have hit profits considerably, but the compromise was not enough. Kate Moss visiting the Italian restaurant La Famiglia restaurant in Chelsea back in January 2019 The neighbour then filed complaints about the singing of Happy Birthday waking his two-year-old child. So the restaurant banned singing in the garden room last October. 'It has got ridiculous,' a supporter tells The Chelsea Citizen. 'No matter what they do to keep him happy, he comes back with more complaints. He is now demanding that they stop serving food at 9pm in the garden. 'If that happens, it may make the restaurant unviable because a second sitting would no longer be possible. It would be a disaster.' The friend adds: 'In all these years, there have never been any complaints from neighbours.' Now, celebrities and local regulars are writing to the council ahead of a licensing sub-committee meeting. The allegation before the committee is on the grounds of 'public nuisance and protection of children from harm'. Cara Delevingne, who recently appeared on the cover of Playboy magazine, arriving at the premiere of Wuthering Heights in January this year She's a woman of passionate enthusiasms, whether it's for the stripper pole and mirrored ceiling she installed in the Los Angeles house she shares with elder sister Poppy or going for it hammer and tongs at the Burning Man Festival in Nevada – as she did with such verve in 2022 that she returned to LA a shadow of her usual vibrant self. So I'm intrigued that, a week or two ago, Cara Delevingne discreetly relinquished her controlling interest in Initiative Earth, the charity she established in 2020 with the aim of improving the 'physical and natural environment' by seeking 'to influence public opinion [and] governmental and other bodies'. Cara's representatives didn't respond to requests for comment. But the 33-year-old model, singer and actress has plenty to keep her busy, as she's just demonstrated by posing, naked from the waist down, on the cover of Playboy magazine. She skipped Keir's farewell party, held in the garden she's shared with him in Downing Street, but it seems unlikely Chancellor Rachel Reeves can dodge reality for much longer. It'll be a bracing experience for Reeves who, on appointment, let out her south London house and spent £20,000 of taxpayers' money on the flat at No 11, where she replaced a portrait of Churchill with a woollen tapestry of an 'unknown woman'. The Treasury's annual report, just published, discloses that her use of the flat was recorded, for tax purposes, as 'a benefit in kind' worth just £115-a-week. Away from the subsidised splendour of Government, a similar rental property could easily cost £2,500-a-week. Wales's new First Minister, Rhun ap Iorwerth, once played guitar in a rock band called 69 but prefers to be in the shadows these days, at least when it comes to music. Asked what the most creative thing he does is, Rhun, 53, says: 'Composing music. As I'm far too shy to get on stage and sing now, it's great to hear my daughter [Siwan] play some of my music with her own band, Tant.' He's following in the footsteps of another wannabe rock star Tony Blair, who sang with the band Ugly Rumours.  Tartan warrior Gordon Ramsay visited Scotland's national team in Massachusetts ahead of their World Cup opener. But, unlike some Scots, the Glaswegian TV chef was cheering on England before their semi-final against Argentina. 'This is a monumental evening, not just for the next two hours, but, fingers crossed, at 10 o'clock we'll be celebrating the World Cup game,' he told guests at Wednesday's launch party for Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen at The Cumberland hotel in London, where the match was shown on big screens.  Laura Tobin (L) and Charlotte Hawkins (R) both attended a garden party at Buckingham Palace  Good Morning Britain star Charlotte Hawkins received a right royal shock when she arrived at Buckingham Palace for a garden party. She discovered that not only was fellow presenter Laura Tobin a guest – but she had pinched her dress! 'I didn't know she was going to be at the same garden party,' Laura admits. 'She turned up and went, 'That's my dress!'. I said, 'I'm so sorry.' Meteorologist Laura, 44, explains: 'I took it from her wardrobe at Good Morning Britain, but hadn't asked to technically borrow it.' It's not the first time that Laura has raided a colleague's wardrobe. She previously confessed to pinching one of Susanna Reid's fascinators to wear at Royal Ascot. She was nominated for an Oscar for her performance alongside Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell in the film Swing Shift. But Hollywood star Christine Lahti says she was advised early in her career to sell her body for roles. 'I was told by this casting director that I was never going to make it because I am not conventionally beautiful and that I was too tall,' says Christine, 76, who's starring in The Smile Of Her, at London's Marylebone Theatre. 'It was so crushing to hear that I'd never make it in the business unless I became a sex worker.' She tells me: 'He said this was just the way it was done and he listed five really famous and respected actresses that he claimed only made it because they slept their way to the top.'