David Gold - Lifestyle
Traditional Homes and Interiors
When David Gold was young, his family were so poor that they lived in a bombed-out house in London's East End with an outside toilet and only a tarpaulin for a roof.
Now aged 69, he's head of his family's business worth an estimated £515 million and lives in a sumptuous 7-bedroom house in Surrey with 55 acres of grounds including a 19-hole golf course and a landing-strip for his plane and helicopter.
"Every morning as I come down the staircase, I look into the mirror on the landing and straighten my tie, then look at a photo of our old outside toilet and tin bath, pinch myself and say 'You did okay!'"
David didn't leave the house he grew up in, 442 Green Street, El3 until he got married at the age of 21 and moved to a terraced house in Beckenharn. After that he lived in a bungalow in Orpington, a 3-bedroom house in Biggin Hill, an apartment in Croydon, and then a 4-bedroom house in Whyteleafe, the village where bis offices are still based.
His original motivation for settling in the Surrey area was proximity to his business, which began with Gold Star Publishing, before he bought the Ann Summers retail chain in the 1970s. He was soon in love with his surroundings.
"The countryside in this area is wonderful" he says. "I think Surrey is one of the most outstanding counties for its beauty, and I wanted to be here."
It has been a labour of love for me — I'll probably be here all my life
Twenty five years ago, David began looking for "the house I'd spend the rest of my life in" as he puts it. "I believe that, you buy something special, it becomes the family home. This house is the hub of my entire family and iis perfection, so why would I want to move from perfection?
"1 looked at dozens of properties. My aim was to find a big house which fell like a home and had plenty of land. I wasn't going to take anything which wasn't exactly what I wanted."
"When I arrived here, I knew immediately it was exactly what I'd hoped for. Even after just going down the driveway, I could have gone straight to the estate agents and bought it, 1 didn't really need to see anymore." David wasn't even put off when he subsequently discovered that the house in extremely poor condition, and that he couldn't even walk round the grounds because of all the damage caused by the infamous storm of October 1987.
"When I brought an architect here, he said 'We'll pull it dlown and re-build.' He was right financially, but emotionally he was wrong because I've since saved a wonderful Victorian house and restored it to its original glory: So we ended up restoring it rather than pulling it down."
The 3-storey house, which was built in 1850, had been on the market for five years at £1 million. David bought it in June 1992 for £400,000. However, he was then to spend a fortune on its restoration.
