Sir John Hall (born 21 March 1933) is a
property developer
Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to others. R ...
in
North East England
North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary author ...
. He is also life president and former chairman of
Newcastle United Football Club.
Biography
The son of a miner, Hall was born and brought up in North Seaton,
Ashington
Ashington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, with a population of 27,864 at the 2011 Census. It was once a centre of the coal mining industry. The town is north of Newcastle upon Tyne, west of the A189 and bordered to the ...
,
Northumberland
Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey.
It is bordered by land ...
, and he attended nearby
Bedlington Grammar School
Bedlington Academy (formerly Bedlingtonshire Community High School) is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form in Bedlington in the English county of Northumberland.
History
It was founded in 1926 as Bedlington Secondary School for t ...
until 1949. Before starting his own business career, he worked in the mining industry as a surveyor.
In the 1980s, Hall's company, Cameron Hall Developments, masterminded the construction of the
MetroCentre shopping mall in
Dunston, Gateshead.
Hall's company bought
Woolsington Hall, northwest of Newcastle, in 1994. Hall has planned several developments of the site, including a football academy and a luxury hotel with golf course. In 2002, the hall was added to
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
's
Heritage at Risk Register
An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for acti ...
and, as of 2021, is vacant following fire damage and requiring full restoration.
In April 2010, Hall announced that he was suffering from inoperable
prostate cancer and was about to embark on a course of intensive chemotherapy. As of February 2011, the cancer was being kept under control by medication and Hall was concentrating on his final project, a £2.5-million rose garden at his
Wynyard Park estate.
On 10 February 2011, at a ceremony at the
Shipley Art Gallery
The Shipley Art Gallery is an art gallery in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England, located at the south end of Prince Consort Road. It has a Designated Collection of national importance.
Origins
The Shipley Art Gallery opened to the public in 1 ...
, Hall and his wife were given the freedom of Gateshead for their services to leisure, retail, business and sport.
Newcastle United Football Club
Hall began his ownership of the team by taking over
Newcastle United in a bitter battle for control and appointing
Kevin Keegan as manager in February 1992. Keegan turned the club's fortunes around, taking the team from the brink of relegation into the
Third Division, to competing with
Manchester United for the
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
in 1996.
After taking over Newcastle United, Hall announced his intention to create a "sporting club" along similar lines to multi-sport institutions in Europe such as
FC Barcelona
Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football.
Found ...
. To this end he also bought the
Newcastle Falcons
Newcastle Falcons is a rugby union team that play in Premiership Rugby, England's highest division of rugby union.
The club was established in 1877 as the Gosforth Football Club. Around 1882 the club merged with the Northumberland Football Cl ...
(rugby union), the
Newcastle Eagles
The Newcastle Eagles are a professional basketball team based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
Playing in the top-tier British Basketball League and holding the franchise for Tyne & Wear, they are the most successful team in the League's histor ...
(basketball), and the
Durham Wasps (ice hockey) in 1995. The Wasps were subsequently moved to
Sunderland's Crowtree Leisure Centre. They were renamed the
Newcastle Cobras
The Newcastle Jesters were an ice hockey franchise based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England. The team were members of the Ice Hockey Superleague and played their home games at the Telewest Arena (now the Metro Radio Arena).
History
Single Season ...
when they moved to
Newcastle Arena the following season.
Hall planned to build a new rugby, football and ice-skating stadium at
Leazes Park
Leazes Park is a Grade II listed park urban park in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is the city's oldest park, opened in 1873, and lies to the west of the city centre. The park contains a lake above the course of the Lort Burn. It is next t ...
but the scheme was rejected after a 38,000-signature petition against it was organised by local residents. Instead, he began rebuilding
St James' Park
St James' Park is a football stadium in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is the home of Premier League club Newcastle United F.C. With a seating capacity of 52,305 seats, it is the eighth largest football stadium in England.
St James' Pa ...
, Newcastle United's stadium, where the Leazes End stand is now the Sir John Hall Stand. Although he proved very popular with the club's fans, questions as to whether his involvement with Newcastle United was anything other than profitable opportunism have been raised.
In 1997, Hall passed chairmanship of the club to
Freddy Shepherd
Freddy Shepherd (29 October 1941 – 25 September 2017) was an English businessman and the chairman of Newcastle United football club from 1997 until 2007.
During his time at Newcastle, both as an active assistant to and later replacement of ...
and his family interests in the club to his son, Douglas. He then sold his entire 41.6% shareholding to sports retail magnate
Mike Ashley for £55 million on 23 May 2007, valuing the club at £133.1 million.
Politics
Hall has donated more than £500,000 to the Conservative Party, and helped to fund
Theresa May
Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cabi ...
's snap general election in 2017. In May 2017 he gave £25,000 to the Conservative Party.
In February 2018, he expressed disapproval over what he described as May's indecisiveness about
Brexit
Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...
and her lack of domestic policies.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, John
1933 births
Living people
People from Ashington
Newcastle United F.C. directors and chairmen
Newcastle Falcons
Deputy Lieutenants of Durham
Knights Bachelor
English rugby union chairmen and investors
People educated at Bedlingtonshire Community High School
Newcastle Eagles
Conservative Party (UK) donors