Ed Sheeran Will Build A Boat-Shaped Prayer Hall At His Country Estate

Ed Sheeran has been granted permission to build a prayer hall at its £3.7 million ($4.7 million) country estate in Dennington, Suffolk.

East Suffolk Council has given the green light to build the boat-shaped building after a re-design of the original scheme.

Plans for the chapel, which comprises a 15m-tall tower, were rejected last year after complaints from neighbors. Locals feared that the prayer hall would clash with the village church.

The structure, compared to an ark, was designed by Donald Insall Associates, the architects firm behind the restoration of Windsor Castle after a fire in 1992.

Sheeran’s father-in-law, Matthew Seaborn, is a practice director at the firm.

The local authority said that the hall will “address an important need for a private place of retreat for contemplation and prayer”.

It added it would be used “for celebration of key life and family milestones, family and social gatherings, marriages, christenings and so forth”.

“It would also allow the applicant’s family, friends and colleagues to be able enjoy these things and join them in their observance.”  

Sheeran, 28, amassed the land by buying four adjacent homes in 2017.

‘Sheeranville’, as the singer’s Suffolk retreat is known, already features a sauna, gym and swimming pool, greenhouse, an underground music room, a cinema, a multi-room tree-house and an orangery.

It also comprises underground tunnels that connect the estate’s main buildings and a private pub, the Lancaster Lock.

Earlier this year, the popstar won a legal battle to keep a 16 ft sign up hang outside the barn-turned-pub.

The singer erected the sign outside the Grade II listed building without planning permission but he has been granted retrospective consent.

Sheeran ranked fifth in Forbes’ 2019 Celebrity 100 Earnings, with $110 million. 

He lives at the estate with his wife, Cherry Seaborn, whom he met at school in Suffolk.