Demolished! James May's Lego house is knocked down after no-one came forward to save it



The Lego house built by Top Gear presenter James May has been demolished.



May built the house using 3.3million plastic bricks and it had a working toilet, hot shower and a 'very uncomfortable' bed.

But after no one came forward to take the toy house off his hands a demolition team was called in to knock the colourful bricks off its timber frame with mallets.



Demolished: James May's Lego house has been demolished after Legoland decided they didn't want it

About 1,000 volunteers built the 20ft-tall house in Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking, Surrey – but the vineyard needed the land back to harvest its grapes.

After knocking down its Lego building blocks the demolition team were due to hack its wooden frame apart with chainsaws.



Anyone who wanted it had by 8am on Tuesday to claim it.



The house of Lego: TV presenter James May spent Friday night sleeping in the two-storey building for his TV series James May's Toy Stories

Plans for Legoland to move it to their theme park fell through because transport costs were too high and despite a final Facebook appeal for someone to take it, no-one came forward.

The plastic bricks were to be donated to charity once the house was demolished. A spokesman for Denbies Wine Estate said that the house also had to be dismantled because it did not have planning permission.

'We expect that the house will have been completely taken apart by the end of the week and after that, the bricks are going to be donated to charity,' he said.

'It was never intended to be a permanent fixture on the site as it was a temporary structure that didn't have planning permission.

'We were always happy to have it there for as long as was wanted.'

James May was not available for comment because he was filming in Romania. A spokesman for the BBC said that no-one came forward with a last minute offer to take the building - despite a Facebook appeal.

The move to Legoland in Windsor fell through when staff realised it would have cost £50,000 pounds to dismantle it and reassemble it . May had said Legoland reneged on a deal to take it to their theme park in Windsor, Berkshire.



He had said: ‘I’m very unhappy about it. I feel as if I’m having my arm twisted into saying “knock it down”.

‘Legoland only told us on Thursday they were not going to take it.

'Knocking it down is just wrong on every level. It’s a really lovely thing – it would break the hearts of the 1,000 people who worked like dogs to build it.’

May had hoped an art gallery, a children’s home or a wealthy private collector might have come forward for the house.



But anyone hoping to make money from it would have faced legal problems as Legoland has an exclusive licence to use the plastic bricks as a public attraction in Britain.

Lego also banned May from dismantling the structure and giving away the bricks, which the company donated for his forthcoming BBC show James May’s Toy Stories.



‘It would dilute Lego’s sales – we can only give them to charity,’ May said.

What goes up must come down... Workers from the demolition team throw some of the Lego from the house up in the air as they knock the building down

May slept in the house on Friday night, on ‘the most uncomfortable bed I’ve ever slept in’ – when he also discovered the house was not waterproof.



Martin Williams, marketing director of Legoland Windsor, had said: ‘We’re disappointed we were not consulted as our model-makers could have advised on building a movable structure.



'We considered all the options but due to cost, timings, logistics and planning permission, we have decided it would not be viable to move the structure to the park.'

No takers: Demolition begins on the Lego house after no-one came forward to take it off May's hands









