Leggatt’s ruling was supported by Lord Reed and Lord Lloyd-Jones, while a dissenting judgment was given by Lord Sales, with whom Lord Kitchin agreed. The judgment does not contain a remedy, and this was deferred to the high court, suggesting it may involve either an injunction or damages paid to the owners. However, Leggatt was clear in his opinion that this was a specific case, as the Tate’s decision to open a viewing gallery was “a very particular and exceptional use of land”, and did not mean that residents could complain of nuisance because neighbours could see inside their buildings. The supreme court decision had been anticipated as potentially enshrining tenants’ rights to privacy and potentially opening the floodgates to thousands of neighbour disputes. The platform opened to the public in 2016, four years after the flats were completed. The platform, which opened in 2016, provides a panorama of the city as well as a direct view into their glass-fronted flats. The case involves five owners of four flats in the Neo Bankside development on the South Bank in London taking action against the Tate over the estimated 500,000 visitors a year looking into their homes from the viewing platform 34 metres away. Noting that some visitors to Tate Modern’s viewing gallery, which is currently closed, photograph the interiors and post the images on social media, Lord Leggatt said: “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.”
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