Football club president ordered to demolish 24ft 'eyesore man cave' in his garden after £100,000 court battle with neighbour

A football club president who built a 24ft 'man cave' has been ordered to demolish it after a £100,000 court battle with a neighbour.

Justin Salmon upset his neighbour after erecting what he has described as a 'den' – featuring a TV, bar, plastered walls, carpeting, furniture and an electric doorbell – at the bottom of his garden.

Neighbour Andrianna Neophytou dragged the president of non-league Sutton Common Rovers FC to court to demand the 'eyesore' be torn down.

She is the freeholder of the Salmons' ground-level maisonette, in Coulsdon, south London, as well as their upstairs neighbour.

She had previously secured a tribunal ruling that the sprawling 'man cave', built in 2018, was in breach of their lease, which gave permission for a pergola and a simple toolshed in the garden.

But she sued Mr Salmon to have the shed torn down completely after arguing that the work he did to comply with his lease did not go far enough.

Mrs Neophytou says he merely converted the 'cave' into an open-sided outdoor bar on the same footprint, swapping a sign on it saying 'Man Cave' for one reading 'Shed for Domestic Purposes'.

Now Mr Salmon must demolish the entire structure after the judge rejected his claim that the bar room is in fact a mere garden pergola.

Football club president Justin Salmon and his wife Karen are pictured outside Mayor's and City County Court in London after a hearing in a dispute over a 24ft 'man cave' he built

The couple's neighbour Andrianna Neophytou, also seen leaving the court, has branded the structure in Coulsdon, south London, an 'eyesore' and wants it demolished

The so-called 'den' featuring a TV, bar, plastered walls, carpeting, furniture and an electric doorbell was first erected at the bottom of the Salmons' garden in 2018

In a case lawyers expect will run up legal bills worth more than £100,000, Judge Nicholas Parfitt said the structure is 'not a pergola' but instead a 'garden room entertainment area', for which Mr Salmon does not have permission.

The judge ordered Mr Salmon to dismantle the garden room but allowed him to keep the shed next to the bar, finding that that structure falls within Mr Salmon's rights.

The judge also ordered Mrs Neophytou to remove a porch which had been constructed alongside the house up to her maisonette.

Sitting at Mayor's and City County Court, Judge Nicholas Parfitt was told Mr Salmon lives in a maisonette with his wife, with Mrs Neophytou above the Salmons and her garden behind theirs.

Mr Salmon is president and senior secretary at non-league Sutton Common Rovers, having previously played for and coached the club that was founded by his father, Alan Salmon, in 1978.

Mrs Neophytou was approached by Mr Salmon for permission to build a pergola at the bottom of the garden in 2017 and she allowed him to do so.

Once it was built, Mr Salmon then added a shed alongside, before gradually developing the structures until they comprised a roofed garden room.

This featured UPVC windows and doors, plastered walls, carpeted floors, furniture, and signs saying 'Man Cave' and 'The Den'.

Mrs Neophytou had previously told the judge how the neighbours fell out badly in 2020, prompting her to bring First-tier Tribunal proceedings.

Mr Salmon installed signs on the structure, which also featured UPVC windows and doors, plastered walls, carpeted floors and furniture

She argued that the 'eyesore' structures were in breach of the Salmons' lease, saying from the witness box: 'When I looked out the back, I had that great big room and marquees and everything else.

'There was nothing pleasurable about looking out of my windows and that did upset me.'

After the earlier tribunal finding that the structures did breach the lease, Mr Salmon said he would do work on the 'den' to make it comply – going on to turn it into an open garden bar.

But Mrs Neophytou says what was done was not enough, telling Judge Parfitt: 'It doesn't look like a pergola or a shed now. It's all one long structure. It's an eyesore.'

Her barrister, Dilan Deeljur, said a clause of the Salmons' lease prohibits them from having any additional building on the land without written permission, except a shed for domestic purposes.

He accused the Salmons of only making 'piecemeal' changes without removing the garden room structures.

For the Salmons, barrister James Culverwell said whatever name is given, the building containing the bar at the bottom of the Salmons' garden was now a 'pergola-type' structure and therefore within the terms of the agreement.

Mrs Neophytou's barrister said that Mr Salmon placed signs stating 'shed for domestic purposes' and 'pergola with a covering to prevent birds mess' after the initial ruling.

Giving judgment, Judge Parfitt said: 'Looking at the photographs, the present structure provides a garden room entertainment area on the left hand side and a storage area to the right. The two structures are contiguous.

'The garden room is laid out in a manner more like a bar/diner than anything else, in that it contains a counter with three bar stools and a preparation area behind.

'There is also a table suitable for dining with benches on two sides. While the front is open, with heavy curtains available to close it off, the other sides and the roof are blocked off in one way or another.

'I have no doubt that the left hand side is not what was permitted by the claimant's agreement that the defendants could construct a pergola.

'What is there is not a pergola, within any ordinary and natural sense of the word, because it provides less an opportunity to make use of the garden when it otherwise might not be convenient to do so, but rather remains the 'additional living space' which Mr Salmon described to the Property Chamber'.

Once the pergola was built, Mr Salmon then added a shed alongside, before gradually developing the structures until they comprised a roofed garden room

He said the bar side of the structure would now have to be removed, unless more work is done to make it comply with the permission for an open-sided pergola.

As to the porch which Mrs Neophytou had built to enclose the stairs leading up to her maisonette, he said it was an 'interference' with the Salmons' right to pass alongside the house and a 'trespass to their walls'.

However, he said injunctions relating to removal of the garden room and Mrs Neophytou's porch should allow a period of several months for the work, which would enable the parties to instead resolve their row by agreement.

'In both instances, but for different reasons, the waste of resources in removing the entertainment room and porch may be mitigated by the parties coming to terms,' he said.

'In my view this would be a far preferable outcome. It is a matter for them.'

The judge has not yet made a decision on what proportions of the legal bills the parties will have to pay.

Poundland could disappear from the High Street within days as Andy Burnham asks questions over how its owners handled a sales process.

Thousands of nervous staff are waiting to hear what will happen to the discount retailer after it filed a notice to appoint administrators with the High Court today.

This will give the business, bought by US investment firm Gordon Brothers for less than £1 last year, some breathing room – ten days – to find a rescue deal. AlixPartners is poised to take over a potential insolvency process.

But the Poundland brand and its 600 shops will not be sold as a whole, leading to a carve-up of the 36-year old retailer, meaning jobs are at risk at any shops that are not bought.

And on Thursday night, the Prime Minister said he is ready to demand answers from owners amid a 'deeply worrying time' for staff and their families.

Burnham told The Telegraph: 'We want to see jobs protected. If there was a potential owner to avoid this that hasn’t been accepted, then the Business Secretary and I want to know why that is the case.'

Battle for survival: The fate of Poundland's near 12,000 staff hangs in the balance.

It would mark the biggest high street collapse since Debenhams closed its doors in 2021 with the loss of 12,000 jobs.

Job losses could hit 600 shops and a distribution centre in Makerfield, Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s constituency, which employs around 270 people.

Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds also said he was ‘very much concerned’ and would push for answers as workers and bosses seethe over its failure to find a buyer.

He told The Telegraph: ‘If it is true that it was not necessary to put the business into administration then the present owners will have to account for that.’

Why has Poundland struggled?

Chains like Poundland are battling shoppers with constrained budgets while costs, such as employing people, have increased – following Government moves to hike wages and employer National Insurance contributions. Savvier shoppers are looking for cheaper online alternatives, including Amazon, Temu and TikTok Shop.

Former owners, the Warsaw-listed Pepco Group, made some wrong moves that did not go down well with its customers, including putting Pepco clothing in its shops.

Its most recent woes stem back to last year, when it narrowly avoided collapsing into administration. The chain was sold in June 2025 to US firm Gordon Brothers for a nominal €1 amid 'challenging trading conditions'.

By November 2025, around 100 Poundland shops had been shut or earmarked for closure. Two months later, as part of its radical turnaround plan, Poundland had shut 149 stores with 2,200 job losses.

But this year, Poundland bosses insisted it was turning a corner, pointing to like-for-like sales growth of 3.3 per cent in the three months to September 26.

Poundland's managing director Barry Williams said earlier this month: 'Our recovery plan is working, thanks to our investment in simple low pricing and new ranges, powered by our new in-house teams.'

Why is there a dispute between Poundland’s owners and its bosses?

Both shop workers’ union Usdaw and Poundland’s management have accused Gordon Brothers of mishandling a sales process, which it kicked off at the beginning of September.

The union met with the minister for the future of work, Kate Dearden, on Wednesday, amid warnings of what would be the biggest High Street collapse in years.

Three directors, appointed less than a fortnight ago, this week walked out following a dramatic dispute with owners Gordon Brothers.

Hours later the retailer’s management hit out at the owners, calling the process ‘unexpected, unwanted and avoidable’.

Government adviser David Bickerton is set to ask ‘fairly basic questions of senior people around Poundland’ in order to ‘establish what the situation is,’ on behalf of the business secretary, the Financial Times reported.

What does a notice to appoint administrators mean?

‘Filing a notice of intention isn’t administration itself,’ explains Julie Palmer, managing partner at real estate advisory group BTG.

Instead, it effectively keeps the wolves from the door for up to ten business days of protection and helps the firm preserve cash.

She added: ‘If an appointment follows, the administrators take control of the company from the directors. Their first duty is to try to rescue it as a going concern.

'If that isn’t possible, they aim for a better result for creditors than liquidation would give. In practice that usually means a sale, either of the whole business or in parts. For staff and customers, stores normally keep trading while that happens, but the risk is that the business is broken up, with stronger stores sold and weaker ones closed.’

Who could buy the shops?

Owner Gordon Brothers rejected a takeover offer from Irish real estate firm Martin Property Group – despite management and unions arguing this was the best deal on the table.

This would have been for the whole business, including its brand and full store estate.

But now it seems like other major retailers, especially those with grand expansion plans, could pick up some shops from Poundland.

The owner of The Range, Homebase and Wilko – known as Britain’s ‘Del Boy Billionaire’ – is thought to be interested. Chris Dawson, 74, who runs CDS Superstores, acquired the Wilko brand out of administration in 2023.

Dawson got his nickname, the 'Del Boy billionaire', via the press as a reference to his yellow Lamborghini Urus, which has a personalised number plate 'DE11 BOY', a homage to the character Del Boy Trotter from the classic TV show Only Fools and Horses.

Dawson started his career as a market trader, before founding The Range and scaling it to a major high street chain. He has since acquired Wilko and Homebase out of administration.

Chris Dawson, 74, runs CDS Superstores, which owns The Range, Homebase and Wilko

Poundstretcher owner Fortress is also understood to be looking at buying shops. The rival discount retailer runs more than 300 shops in the UK.

Supermarket Lidl also hopes to be able to snap up some of its stores if the retailer fails to sell the whole company. The discounter is pushing ahead with a major expansion mission.

TG Jones owner is also understood to be interested in buying parts of the Poundland business.

The private equity group owns Britain's WH Smith shops, now known as TG Jones stores and previously bought ailing accessories chain Claire's, Hobbycraft and The Original Factory Shop.

All Claire's standalone shops in the UK and Ireland stopped trading earlier this year after its financial woes saw it fall into administration twice in a year.

Are shops open and will staff be paid?

Poundland shops are currently open and operating business as usual.

But Poundland's managing director Barry Williams wrote a letter to around 12,000, accusing the retailer’s owner of limiting the chain's access to funding.

This has effectively prevented bosses from making routine payments, with suppliers now worried they will not be paid on time this week, according to Sky News.

But sources close to the crisis talks insisted that this should not prevent staff from being paid at the end of the month.

Williams told staff: 'I'm disappointed to have to tell you that Gordon Brothers have given instructions that restricts our access to funds that we would, in normal circumstances expect to access fully under our existing loan agreement.'

Gordon Brothers are accused of breaching the terms of an asset-based lending facility by failing to submit a budget to the shareholders on time despite an agreed grace period – with the business now outperforming those forecasts, Sky News reported.

Julie Palmer, managing partner at real estate advisory group BTG, says that in this situation, ‘existing commitments such as payroll and supplier invoices can still be met from cash already available‘.

But bosses cannot ‘draw further funds to cover anything beyond that,’ she says, which poses a problem as retailers typically draw from these loans in the autumn to buy Christmas stock - before repaying from festive sales in December and January.

She added: ‘If a lender has concerns about longer-term viability, it may simply be unwilling to increase its exposure by funding that stock build, particularly when it can’t be sure who will own the business, or what shape it will be in, by the time the money needs to come back.

‘That leaves management with very little room to manoeuvre. It limits their ability to buy stock or take on new commitments, and puts directors in a difficult position, because they must be confident the company can meet its liabilities before taking on new ones. Once credit insurers pull back and suppliers start asking for payment up front, the squeeze tightens quickly.’