The major players in the bitter battle of Chelsea barracks

When Nick and Christian Candy bought the Chelsea Barracks site along with the Qatari government for £959 million, they envisaged a grand scheme that would be a lasting tribute to their 21st century good taste.

The brothers, behind some of London's most expensive property deals and currently building a landmark scheme at One Hyde park, boasted they would transform the site into "a masterpiece of contemporary design".

But in November last year in the face of local hostility, they sold their stake to their Qatari partners.

The property tycoons, still in their 30s and worth £330 million according to the Sunday Times Rich List, retained a management, marketing and interior design role. That is now likely to come to an end as well.

Lord Rogers

Noted for his modernist and functionalist designs, Lord Rogers, 75, is the award winning architect behind such projects as the Millennium Dome and the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

He was the perfect architect to implement the Candy Brothers' vision for Chelsea Barracks. Hugely fashionable, Lord Rogers is the Labour Party's favourite architect. His wife Ruth runs the River Cafe in Hammersmith.

But his proposal for glass and steel towers angered Chelsea's local elite as well as drawing opposition from Prince Charles.

Emir of Qatar

When the Candy brothers put together the deal to buy Chelsea Barracks, the bulk of the money came from Qatari Diar, the development arm of the Qatari royal family. Together they formed Project Blue (Guernsey) Limited to develop the site.

But the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, whose fabulous wealth derived from his state's vast oil supplies, appears to have become uneasy with the opposition his scheme was causing.

Unwilling to engage in a public war of words with Prince Charles and other Chelsea grandees, he has now decided to scrap the modernist scheme and start the whole process again.

The Chelsea locals

Led by among others, the Earl of Stockton, grandson of former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, the plans for Chelsea barracks faced fierce opposition from Chelsea grandees.

The earl branded the plans an "abomination" and an "insult to the memories" of the soldiers who were housed at the barracks. Local politicians also weighed in.

Kit Malthouse, one of Boris Johnon's most senior mayoral aides and Assembly member for the area, said: "The proposals are nothing short of urban vandalism." The British historian Andrew Roberts, who lives in Chelsea, also added his backing to the opponents of the scheme as well as the Duke of Westminster.

The classical architects

The traditionalist architect Quinlan Terry was drafted in by Prince Charles to produce an alternative vision for the site. The 71-year-old is a champion of neo-classicism over modern architecture and is controversial for that.

His influence with Prince Charles should not be underestimated. Hank Dittmar, 52, Chief Executive of The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment, will also now have sway in the future look of the barracks site.

In the past he has declared: "Most people actually want to live in a house that looks like a house".