Ever wondered how money can be moved through layers of companies, from retail to entertainment; from legal and financial companies through to small catering firms? Each have their own merits when it comes to an elaborate layering process for moving a vast amount of money.
Take Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, for example. It’s a picturesque town with a Cathedral, a weekly farmer’s market, and a good selection of shops and restaurants. It also has a brewery and a theatre. All sounds very promising, doesn’t it?
What’s really interesting, however, is the flow of money and influence connected to the Town. With it having a Cathedral, one would expect it to be a City, wouldn’t you? Nevertheless, a Town it is, but one with a very distinct and powerful Royal connection. If you stroll through the town you’ll come across the St. Edmunsbury Cathedral:
https://stedscathedral.org/
Just down the road to it is Saint Mary’s Church which looks a bit like a Cathedral in itself and has a tomb of Mary Tudor, Queen of France – the sister of Henry VIII.
Then, just another few hundred yards from the Church brings you to the Greene King, or the “Greedy King” brewery as some people call it after its numerous acquisitions and swallowing up of small, independent breweries in its quest to become one of the biggest breweries in Britain. Interestingly, however, the company has agreed to be bought out itself by a Chinese conglomerate. How times have changed, eh? This will, no doubt, make the Directors of Greene King a lot of money in the process, one of which is connected to one of the Big 4 supermarket retail chains. More on that later:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49400232
Finally, directly opposite the brewery is the Theatre Royal:
https://www.theatreroyal.org/
What’s interesting about this theatre, however, is the list of donors and patrons connected to it.
https://www.theatreroyal.org/support-us/funders-supporters/
From Gyles Brandreth, to Christopher Biggins and Maureen Lipman and Sirs Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen there is an alumni of actors and thespians who are active supporters and contributors to the theatre.
Did you know that Maureen Diane Lipman CBE is connected to Women of the Year, a company with a correspondence address of Brewers Hall along with Dr. Floella Benjamin and others? How very modest of the ladies to give themselves such an unassuming company name, eh?
https://companycheck.co.uk/company/03524013/WOMEN-OF-THE-YEAR/companies-house-data
Of course, Brewers Hall is a Masonic Hall:
https://www.brewershall.co.uk/
If you scroll down the Members of Brewers Hall you will see Greene King there, among others:
Sticking with the brewery connection, one of the donors of the grand Theatre Royal with its very Masonic-hall-like chequered stage flooring is the Greene King brewery of course. You would only expect that to be the case, wouldn’t you, especially where the big chimneys and walls dominate the street opposite the theatre? One of the Non-Executive Directors connected to the brewery is non other than Michael Andrew Coupe, CEO of Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Limited.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/00024511/officers
We also have Nick Mackenzie, Richard Smothers and Robert Oscar Rowley.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/officers/SOHS40KBTO-Jb6t-8MZvZ6zfICU/appointments
Rowley is connected to Camelot, the ones who run the National Lottery, and Smothers (who has over 120 companies under his belt) is connected to Peel Holdings based at the Intu Trafford Centre via his connections to Astley Business Park Management.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/officers/iih6m0KHMvshJZ4zOkKKE0Wv4KA/appointments
Neil Lees has over 650 companies, John Alexander Schofield has 200, and John Whittaker, living in tax haven the Isle of Man has over 400 companies connected to him. I’m sure that the people of Warrington would find this interesting given that Peel Holdings has got its sights on developing Warrington for its own Directors and Town Council Chiefs to make a mint out of.
Some of the other donors of the Theatre Royal are Churchgates 2000, Anglia Suspended Ceilings, Gross & Co Solicitors, Taylor Wimpey, Côte Brasserie, St. Edmundsbury Wealth Management Ltd, Premier Printers, Gibbs Denley, Tattersalls, Gough Hotels Thurlow Champness & Son jewellers, One Broker Limited, Criterion Ices, Sheridans, Whites Catering, Ashtons Legal, Lacy Scott & Knight LLP, Bury Physio, Bluesys, Suffolk Village Info, Suffolk Community Foundation, Thomas Ridley & Son, the St. Edmunds Trust, the St. Edmundsbury Borough Council Community Chest, the Bury St. Edmonds Town Council, the Rotary Club, the National Lottery, and, finally the Alfred William’s Charitable Trust…which with Jonathan Howard Penn takes us right back to Churchgates 2000 again with its connection to The Church.
The Churchgates one is rather interesting of itself because it connects Stephen Raymond West and Ormiston Families Enterprises, at 333 Felixstow Road, Ipswich IP3 9BU to Temple Secretaries and the infamous 788-790 Finchley Road in London.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/06372191/officers
Anglia Suspended Ceilings is connected to 41 Chalton Street, London.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07276237/officers
Then, from Gross & Co Solicitors based at 83-84 Guildhall Street in Bury St. Edmonds we have a Graeme Donald Kirk, born August 1955. He is connected to Bury St Edmund’s Theatre Management Limited (The)(The) – company number 00842455, and yes, with two “THE”s to the Theatre Royal, of course. He is subsequently linked to Okapi Africa Limited (08310885) and Hanneli Moira Rupert:
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08310885/officers
From here we see the link to Johann Peter Rupert, Gaynor Allison Rupert, Joshua (also spelled Josua) Malherbe and John Stephen Loftie-Eaton and their connection to South Africa. This is where it gets really interesting.
Johann Peter Rupert is connected to Renshaw Bay (UK) Limited which is connected to 27 St. James’s Place in St.James’s Square in London and is directly connected to the Kingpin that is Lord Nathaniel Charles Jacob Rothschild, with a correspondence address of 14 St. James’s Place, just around the corner in St. James’s Square:
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07471504/officers
The construction firm Taylor Wimpey is also an interesting one here because it includes not only Gwyneth (“Gwyn”) Victoria Burr both to Sainsbury’s and Asda as she has had Directorships in both companies – remember the merger that they tried to push through the Merger and Monopolies Commision? Not only that but Angela Ann Knight is also connected to Coca-Cola, M&S, Dixons, and Arbuthnot Latham & Co. Ltd. This takes us to disgraced perjuror and former ex convict and ex Cabinet Minister Jonathan William Patrick Aitken.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/00296805/officers
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/00819519/officers
Oh, the irony.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1000114/Shamed-Jonathan-Aitken-prison-chaplain-mp-Carol-Thatcher
Another company that sponsors the theatre is Côte Brasserie (Côtes Restaurants Group Limited) which is owned by the Scrimgeour family of Scotland, namely Alex Rupert Gauvain Scrimgeour and Angus Muir Edington Scrimgeour. Well, Scrimgeour is the surname of a wizarding family in the Harry Potter series of books and films.
Yet another interesting connection is St. Edmundsbury Wealth Management Ltd (OC411419) fronted by Russell Craig Green, Andrew Mark Speed and Gemma Kate Speed of GAR Holdings and Camouse Financial Management Limited (05662116) which takes us directly to Temple Secretaries and 788-790 Finchley Road.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05662116/officers
44 Upper Belgrave Road in Clifton, Bristol is also an address that has been used by Mark Norman Denley of Gibbs Denley via the dissolved Elliot Financial Management Limited and the use of Hanover Directors and HCS Secretarial.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05996878/officers
Which brings us to Tattersalls (company number 00791113), another patron company for the theatre. Here, we have Andrew Ian Henry Russell, the 15th Duke of Bedford, with a correspondence address of Woburn Abbey. It is the Theatre ROYAL after all.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/00791113/officers
The Tavistock Trust for Aphasia – 06988361- leads us then to the Dowager Duchess of Bedford, Henrietta Joan Russell.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/06988361/officers
The Bedford Estate is run by the Honourable Charles William Cayzer with a correspondence address of Brize Lodge, Leafield. OX7 3DD, and is connected to the Sloane Club which was formed by Swift and Instant Companies from 1 Mitchell Lane in Bristol:
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/03143088/officers
Of course, the Theatre Royal is also sponsored by the Rothschild Foundation as well as Coutts, the Queen’s banker. Of course, The Queen is connected to the Rothschild Family by having shares in Rio Tinto, a company that is currently under Investigation for fraud and bribery owned by the Rothschilds and based at 6 St. James’s Square, just a stone’s throw away from Chatham House and No.3 where BP are based.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07350078/officers
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/00719885/officers
Here’s a little ditty about Queenie:
http://www.sxolsout.org.uk/zcase.html
Of course, Lord Sainsbury is pally pally with Lord Rothschild with the Butrint Foundation:
https://rothschildfoundation.org.uk/what-we-do/major-initiatives/butrint-foundation/
So, you see, there are plenty of people from a brewery, a supermarket (connected to Brewers Hall and also the Worshipful Company of Grocers), from the acting profession, from local businesses and from a couple of Dames and Lords, as well as some Dukes to keep the Theatre Royal in Bury St. Edmonds going in all its splendour.
Money doesn’t just talk, it makes itself heard inside an auditorium.
All the world’s a stage, and we are merely an audience watching people pretending to be real.
I shall leave you with this story about a Greedy King:
https://charterforcompassion.org/the-greedy-king
