Irvine Gerald Sellar (3 September 1934 – 26 February 2017) was an English fashion retailer, and later property developer. He was the founder of the

Sellar Property Group Sellar Property Group is a British property group notable for its project Shard London Bridge, built in London Borough of Southwark, United Kingdom. It is headquartered at 42-44 Bermondsey Street, London. Sellar was previously headquartered in ...

, and the developer of

The Shard The Shard, also referred to as the Shard of Glass, Shard London Bridge, and formerly London Bridge Tower, is a 72-storey skyscraper, designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, in Southwark, London, that forms part of The Shard Quarter dev ...

Early life

Sellar was born on 3 September 1934 in London, England. He worked with his father on markets in and around the

East End The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

of London. His family was Jewish, and he grew up in

Southgate, London Southgate is a suburban area of North London, England in the London Borough of Enfield. It is located around north of Charing Cross. The name is derived from being the south gate to Enfield Chase. History Southgate was originally the ''South ...

. Sellar left school at 16 and studied accounting but decided to start working instead. The Shard from the Sky Garden 2015

Career

Sellar started his career as a market trader before opening his first shop in

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

. A second shop followed in

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...

Wardour Street Wardour Street () is a street in Soho, City of Westminster, London. It is a one-way street that runs north from Leicester Square, through Chinatown, London, Chinatown, across Shaftesbury Avenue to Oxford Street. Throughout the 20th century the ...

in 1964. The following year, along with his wife Elizabeth, a third shop was opened on

Carnaby Street Carnaby Street is a pedestrianised shopping street in Soho in the City of Westminster, Central London. Close to Oxford Street and Regent Street, it is home to fashion and lifestyle retailers, including many independent fashion boutiques. Stre ...

, a parade that was to become a worldwide Mecca for fashion, helping to define London's swinging 60s. Meanwhile, he founded the first unisex fashion company in the United Kingdom, Mates by Irvine Sellars. The company later became "Britain’s second-biggest fashion chain," with 90 shops in 1981. That year, he sold it to a South African investor. Sellar founded Ford Sellar Morris, a property company listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

. Sellar borrowed £111m in 1989 and, because of a property downturn in 1991, the company went bankrupt in 1991-92, when Sellar lost £30 million. Sellar founded the

. He acquired the headquarters of

PwC PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...

London Bridge Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It r ...

in 1998. That year, he acquired the site of what would later become

. With 80% from

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

i investors, Sellar completed the construction of The Shard in 2012. He subsequently developed buildings near

Paddington Station Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services provided by the Great We ...

. In December 2016, his plan to develop the 19-storey

Paddington Cube Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddingto ...

for £775 million was approved by

Westminster City Council Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. The city is divided into 20 wards, each electing three councillors. The council is currently composed of 31 Labour Party members and 23 Cons ...

Personal life

With his wife Elizabeth, Sellar had two sons, James, who went on to serve as chairman of SPG, and Paul, a playwright, as well as a daughter, Caroline. In 2015, Irvine and James Sellar had an estimated joint wealth of GBP£220 million. Sellar was a black belt in

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...

, drove a Rolls-Royce and smoked cigars.

Death

Irvine Sellar died on 26 February 2017, aged 82.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sellar, Irvine 1934 births 2017 deaths Businesspeople from London English Jews Place of birth missing Place of death missing 20th-century English businesspeople British company founders