Autobiography

None of the homes I have owned have given
me anywhere near as much joy as my present
one; an eight-bedroom Victorian mansion
situated close to the Ann Summers offices in
Caterham. The property was uninhabitable
when I purchased it in 1992 – so dilapidated
that although it had initially been on the
market for £1 million, I was able to get it for
£440,000. It then took me two years (and
many of thousands of pounds more) to restore
it to its former grandeur and beauty. And to
say it was a labour of love would be an
understatement – such was our attention to
detail, it was more an obsession.
I am as passionate about that house as I have
been about any of my businesses and even my
football clubs. In view of the bleak, heavilypopulated
East London area in which I was
born and raised, I am blessed to be able to
enjoy the incredible countryside in which the
property is set. It initially came with 4 acres of
land, which I have since increased to 55 acres,
and that land includes three small lakes, tennis
courts and my golf course. What gives me
particular pleasure is the sheer number of
trees on the land and the swathes of different
species of birds and other wildlife which can be
seen on it.
A stroll on the property brings back one
memory of my Upton Park childhood, when my
school was bombed I was transferred to Harold
road school for a few months. On my walk to
school one day, I was surprised to come across
a detached house which was double the size of
461