HIS Millennium Bridge got the wobbles; his Swiss Re building has been described as an erotic gherkin; now another of Lord Norman Foster’s glamorous London projects is running into controversy.

He faces accusations of nimbyism — and disrupting a tiny riverside art gallery whose barges are moored in front of his offices and luxury flats on the river Thames at Battersea.

The Couper Collection, a charity supported by the Prince of Wales and Ken Livingstone, the London mayor, says it could face the removal of its barges, containing works designed to introduce youngsters from local schools and estates to modern art.

Max Couper, founder of the charity said: “When we arrived we were moored against derelict buildings. Then Foster arrived, redeveloped them into modern luxury flats — and we no longer fitted in.”

Foster and Partners, the famous architect’s firm, denies such claims but admits the removal of the rusting barges would fit in with their boss’s grand vision for the luxury flats and penthouses at Albion Riverside.

The saga began in the mid-1980s when Max Couper, a young artist, arrived back in Britain after successful exhibitions around Europe. Hunting for somewhere to store his work, he bought some disused barges and rights to some “ancient moorings”, prized by houseboat owners because they were thought to be excluded from licensing restrictions.

For several years, while Couper lived on his barges with his collection, the adjoining land was occupied by a steel-yard and a disused bus garage whose owners paid him little attention.

But the late 1980s London property boom sent Battersea land prices soaring. Couper’s neighbours sold up — and Foster became the gallery’s new neighbour. He built a 10-storey glass and concrete block in the classic Foster style, with his offices on the lower two floors and his own penthouse flat on the top.

It was the beginning of the era in which Foster would transform London’s skyline and architecture with projects such as the Millennium Bridge, the Great Court of the British Museum, the Greater London Authority headquarters, and the Swiss Re building.

Such projects are marked by Foster’s dedication to long sweeping lines, curves and wide smooth surfaces. At home, however, the picture was less elegant. Foster’s view was dominated not by the bends of the river but by Couper’s giant rusting barges.

Couper claims that on the only occasion the architect boarded the boats to describe his vision for the riverside, Foster said : “Personally I like this old industrial stuff but it’s overdue for change.”

Couper meanwhile had been fulfilling his own dream — converting his art collection and boats into a floating educational art gallery with charitable status, aimed at local schools. The project won enthusiastic backing from Wandsworth council and financial backing from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Arts Council and the Corporation of London.

However, Foster’s suggested changes soon followed. Hutchison Whampoa, one of China’s largest multinationals, had acquired the derelict bus garage and asked the architect to replace it with a luxury riverside complex of 200 flats, suites and upmarket shops.

Nicholas Skeens, chairman of what is now the Couper Trust, which oversees the collection, said: “The first ominous sign was in the drawings of the development — showing the boats completely removed.”

However Foster and Hutchison faced one unexpected snag. The deeds transferring the land to Hutchison excluded a 5ft-wide strip running hundreds of feet along the riverside. Couper, with Rupert Ashmore, a neighbouring houseboat owner, had laid claim to the whole strip with the Land Registry — and planted it with a scruffy hedge and herb garden.

The resulting incongruous mix of ultra-modern architecture and urban decay could be why Hutchison has found no occupier for the ground floor centrepiece of Foster’s design — a grand riverside restaurant with floor-to-ceiling glass walls, and views of the hedge.

This week it emerged that both Foster and Hutchison had lodged counterclaims with the Land Registry and Foster has engaged Farrer & Co, the Queen’s lawyers, to take on the boat owners.

Hutchison has also been in contact with the Port of London Authority, which controls river moorings. The authority has now written to Couper saying it wants to revoke all ancient moorings — and he must apply for a licence or risk removal.

This weekend Livingstone joined battle demanding that the authority backs down. He said: “The Couper Collection is an important artistic resource which enhances the life of the river.”

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