John Garlick Llewellyn Poulson (14 April 1910 – 31 January 1993)
was a British
architectural designer
The term architectural designer may refer to a building designer who is not a registered architect, architectural technologist or any other person that is involved in the design process of buildings or urban landscapes.
Architectural designers ...
and businessman who caused a major political scandal when his use of bribery was disclosed in 1972. The highest-ranking figure to be forced out due to the scandal was
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...
Reginald Maudling
Reginald Maudling (7 March 1917 – 14 February 1979) was a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1962 to 1964 and as Home Secretary from 1970 to 1972. From 1955 until the late 1960s, he was spoken of as a prospecti ...
. Poulson served a prison sentence, but continued to protest his innocence, claiming that he was "a man more sinned against than sinning".
[John Poulson ''The Price'', Michael Joseph, 1981]
Family and early life
Poulson came from a strict
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
family and inherited a strong faith which stressed the importance of self-help. He did badly at school and at
Leeds College of Art
Leeds Arts University is a specialist arts further and higher education institution, based in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with a main campus opposite the University of Leeds.
History
It was founded in 1846 as the Leeds Scho ...
but nevertheless was articled to a
Pontefract
Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wake ...
firm of architects, Garside and Pennington. He left to found his own architecture practice with financial backing from his father.
He never registered with the
ARCUK {{noref, date=December 2011
Under an Act passed by the UK Parliament in 1931, there was established an Architects' Registration Council of the United Kingdom (ARCUK), referred to in the Act as "the Council". The constitution of the Council was pres ...
(Architects' Registration Council of the United Kingdom), later claiming "I was too busy to complete my examinations".
Poulson soon began to cultivate contacts in the local borough council and officials at the larger
West Riding County Council
West Riding County Council (WRCC) was the county council of the Administrative counties of England, administrative county of the West Riding of Yorkshire from 1 April 1889 to 31 March 1974. The council met at County Hall, Wakefield, County Hall i ...
. Work soon began to arrive and Poulson told friends that he was "on his way". Poulson also became politically involved with the
National Liberals, although he never let political differences stop him from making "friends" who were in charge of commissioning public buildings. He was a
Freemason
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
.
Post-war business
Poulson obtained a medical exemption from wartime service in 1939. The same year he married Cynthia Sykes, whose sister Lorna was married to John King, who many years later was ennobled as
John King, Baron King of Wartnaby
John Leonard King, Baron King of Wartnaby (29 August 1917 – 12 July 2005) was a British businessman, who was noted for leading British Airways from an inefficient, nationalised company to one of the most successful airlines of recent times. ...
.
He was thus well placed to expand his business throughout the wartime years. He was a workaholic and demanded the same commitment from his staff, dismissing staff who would not work his way. He had his own firm build him a house called ''Manasseh'' at a cost of £60,000, helped by building contractors donating services for free in the hope of getting contracts in the future. The house won the
Ideal Homes "House of the Year" competition in 1958.
Poulson revolutionised the accepted architectural method of completing a design then handing it over for costing, planning and building. He developed a combined architecture and design practice, an all-in-one service which employed all the separate disciplines in integrated teams. This approach facilitated the development process and reduced costs. In the post-war years, Poulson's business boomed and by the 1960s was one of the largest in Europe. He later admitted that the practice expanded "beyond my wildest dreams" and offices were opened in London,
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area.
Until the early 1800s, the a ...
,
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...
,
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
,
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
and
Lagos
Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...
,
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
.
Local authorities
![Luke Williams House, Pontefract](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Luke_Williams_House%2C_Pontefract.JPG)
In 1958, the National Liberal MP Sir
Herbert Butcher
Sir Herbert Walter Butcher, 1st Baronet (12 June 1901 – 11 May 1966) was an English Conservative and National Liberal politician. He sat in the House of Commons from 1937 to 1966.
Butcher was the son of Frank Butcher. He was educated at Hasti ...
advised his friend Poulson to set up a servicing company to win business for his architect's practice. Poulson established Ropergate Services Ltd., named after the street in Pontefract where he was based. This company also had the advantage of reducing Poulson's tax liability considerably. In the late 1950s, there was a building boom as many local authorities embarked on major building schemes.
In
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...
, council leader
T. Dan Smith
Thomas Daniel Smith (11 May 1915 – 27 July 1993), also known by his nickname “Mr Newcastle”,"Southern Discomfort" (leading article), ''The Times'', 3 August 1993. was a high-profile British Labour Party politician who served as chairman of ...
's ambition to redevelop Newcastle attracted the attention of the construction firm
Bovis which had worked for Poulson. Bovis' managing director suggested formalising links and in February 1962 Smith was appointed as a consultant to the Poulson organisation. This connection was extremely valuable to Poulson as Smith had a network of contacts among other authorities in the north-east, many of whom were also recruited as Poulson consultants. Smith's involvement with the
Labour Party reassured many Labour councillors wary of dealing with someone involved in the
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
-allied National Liberals. Poulson also won other public sector work in the North East, such as Sunderland Police Station.
Poulson also found a useful contact in
Andrew Cunningham, a senior figure in both the
General and Municipal Workers Union
The GMB is a general trade union in the United Kingdom which has more than 460,000 members. Its members work in nearly all industrial sectors, in retail, security, schools, distribution, the utilities, social care, the National Health Service (N ...
and the
Labour Party 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 authorit ...
. Some of Poulson's largest residential blocks were built in Cunningham's home town of
Felling
Felling is the process of cutting down trees,"Feller" def. 2. and "Felling", def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) © Oxford University Press 2009 an element of the task of logging. The person cutting the tree ...
,
County Durham
County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly About North East E ...
. Cunningham was later imprisoned for his dealings with the architect. Poulson's work in Felling consisted of the building of one 16-storey high-rise apartment block with six seven-storey blocks of maisonettes surrounding it. These were approved in 1966. Four of the low-rise maisonette blocks were demolished in 1987 owing to their poor state of repair and tenants dislike of them. Two maisonette blocks and the high-rise block Crowhall Tower remain.
In his home town of Pontefract, Poulson won much local authority work for the then Pontefract Municipal Borough Council; such as the town's
library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
and the
Horsefair flats, a high-rise social housing project consisting of four six-storey blocks and one twelve-storey block constructed between 1963 and 1964 which has proved controversial owing to its proximity to
Pontefract Castle
Pontefract (or Pomfret) Castle is a castle ruin in the town of Pontefract, in West Yorkshire, England. King Richard II is thought to have died there. It was the site of a series of famous sieges during the 17th-century English Civil War. ...
.
Nationalised industries
![Cannon Street station](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Cannon_Street_station.jpg)
Poulson was in a good position to gain commissions from the nationalised industries, partly due to his having offered gifts to many civil servants when they were relatively junior and calling upon them for a return of gratitude years later. As an example, Poulson had met Graham Tunbridge, a railway employee, during the war. After the nationalisation of
British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...
, Tunbridge became estates surveyor for its Eastern Region and sent Poulson several contracts for modernisation of stationmasters' homes. When Tunbridge became Estates and Rating Surveyor for BR Southern Region, Poulson moved on to contracts at
Waterloo railway station,
Cannon Street station
Cannon Street station, also known as London Cannon Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Travelcard zone 1 located on Cannon Street in the City of London and managed by Network Rail. It is on ...
and
East Croydon station
East Croydon is a railway station and tram stop in Croydon, Greater London, England, and is located in Travelcard Zone 5. At from , it is one of the busiest non-terminal stations in London, and in the United Kingdom as a whole. It is one of th ...
. In return, Poulson had given Tunbridge £8,547 in cash and in kind.
Another beneficial contact was Scottish Office civil servant
George Pottinger
(William) George Pottinger (11 June 1916 – 15 January 1998)[Aviemore
Aviemore (; gd, An Aghaidh Mhòr ) is a town and tourist resort, situated within the Cairngorms National Park in the Highlands of Scotland. It is in the Badenoch and Strathspey committee area, within the Highland council area. The town is popul ...](_blank)
as a winter sports complex. Poulson was appointed by Pottinger as architect in charge of the Aviemore project. In return, Poulson gave Pottinger gifts worth over £30,000 over six years.
Poulson's connections with the National Liberals began to give him political advancement in the early 1960s. He was Vice-Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Liberal Council from 1961 and frequently hosted National Liberal events in London at which he met senior government ministers. He also made contact with the
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
MP
Albert Roberts. Roberts was later accused of having "acted inconsistently with the standards of the House of Commons".
Overseas work
Poulson was increasingly interested in obtaining commissions outside Britain in the mid-1960s. This required making more contacts. The
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
MP
John Cordle
John Howard Cordle (11 October 1912 – 23 November 2004) was a British Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1959 to 1977.
Life and career
Cordle, the son of Ernest William Cordle, was educated at the City of London Sc ...
had extensive contacts in West Africa and after helping on several small contracts, in 1965 became a consultant to Poulson. Cordle admitted that he had received £5,628 from Poulson's business.
Maudling
Another contact was the then Shadow
Commonwealth Secretary Reginald Maudling
Reginald Maudling (7 March 1917 – 14 February 1979) was a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1962 to 1964 and as Home Secretary from 1970 to 1972. From 1955 until the late 1960s, he was spoken of as a prospecti ...
, whom Poulson knew from his National Liberal activities. Maudling was anxious to build up a business career to keep up his income and Poulson needed a big name as chairman of one of his companies, Construction Promotion. In 1966 Maudling accepted an offer to be chairman. In return, Maudling helped to bring pressure on the government of
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
to award a £1.5 million contract for the new Victoria Hospital on
Gozo
Gozo (, ), Maltese: ''Għawdex'' () and in antiquity known as Gaulos ( xpu, 𐤂𐤅𐤋, ; grc, Γαῦλος, Gaúlos), is an island in the Maltese archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. The island is part of the Republic of Malta. After t ...
to Poulson.
Financial trouble
Poulson's business model was initially highly successful and, at its apogee, had an annual turnover of £1 million;
[ he himself admitted to being a millionaire. However, it was consuming more contract work than was becoming available, and Poulson resorted to tackling these difficulties by bribing and corrupting local councillors, local authority officials and civil servants at all levels. This was an expensive strategy and Poulson later estimated that he "gave away" about £500,000 in the last few years of his involvement in the business. As part of his attempts to gain attention, Poulson had become a local Commissioner of Taxes.][
On 31 December 1969, Poulson was formally removed from control of J.G.L. Poulson and Associates. On 9 November 1971, he filed his own bankruptcy petition, revealing debts of £247,000. The bankruptcy hearings in spring 1972 were assisted by Poulson's meticulous record-keeping which detailed his payments and gifts. Poulson's generosity drew the comment from Muir Hunter QC during the bankruptcy proceedings that " fact, Mr Poulson, you were distributing largesse like ]Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
".[ The bankruptcy hearing also revealed Poulson's love for a lavish lifestyle and his penchant for rubbing shoulders with senior figures in the establishment. This desire to show his financial superiority over others only served to highlight his true character as a lonely, friendless and insecure person. One of Poulson's biggest creditors was the ]Inland Revenue
The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation ta ...
to which he owed around £200,000.[ Whilst the Revenue were pressing Poulson for payment of this amount, he was himself presiding over debt hearings in ]Wakefield
Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...
in his role as a Commissioner of Inland Revenue.[
It swiftly became apparent that Poulson was at the centre of a massive corruption scandal, and in July 1972, the ]Metropolitan Police
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...
began an investigation for fraud. This precipitated the resignation of Reginald Maudling, then Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...
, who was notionally in charge of the police.
Dénouement
On 22 June 1973, Poulson was arrested and charged with corruption in connection with the award of building contracts. The trial at Leeds Crown Court
Leeds Crown Court, more accurately the Crown Court at Leeds, is a venue of the Crown Court in West Yorkshire, England. The buildings are situated on Westgate in Leeds city centre, adjacent to Leeds magistrates courts.
Notable cases As Leeds As ...
lasted 52 days, and cost an estimated £1.25 million. Defending Poulson, QC Donald Herrod, said: "He has nothing to live for and his abiding fear is that he will never complete his sentence because of ill health". Donald Herrod later described his client as "hypocritical, self-righteous and perhaps something of a megalomaniac". Following the trial which was widely reported in the press, he was convicted on 11 February 1974 of fraud and jailed for five years (later increased to seven years). Sentencing him, the judge called Poulson an "incalculably evil man".[ For his part, Poulson denied the charges, saying "I have been a fool, surrounded by a pack of leeches. I took on the world on its own terms, and no one can deny I once had it in my fist".][
Many of his contacts, in particular T. Dan Smith][ and ]George Pottinger
(William) George Pottinger (11 June 1916 – 15 January 1998)[House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...](_blank)
to initiate a Register of Members' Interests. A subsequent Select Committee inquiry which reported in 1977 found that all three had indulged in "conduct inconsistent with the standards which the House is entitled to expect from its Members".
After serving periods in Armley Gaol, Wakefield
Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...
and Oakham prisons, Poulson was released on 13 May 1977 from Lincoln Prison after Lord Longford
Francis Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, 1st Baron Pakenham, Baron Pakenham of Cowley, (5 December 1905 – 3 August 2001), known to his family as Frank Longford and styled Lord Pakenham from 1945 to 1961, was a British politician and ...
had appealed on his behalf. Longford had successfully argued that to keep a sick man in gaol was an "indefensible cruelty". His bankruptcy was discharged, with creditors receiving 10p in the pound, in 1980. A condition of the discharge was that half the proceeds of his autobiography would go to his creditors; the resulting book, ''The Price'', gives his side of the corruption scandal and maintains his innocence. Only a few copies of the book remain in circulation as it was withdrawn and pulped by the publishers through fear of libel actions.
Poulson died in the General Infirmary in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, on 31 January 1993. His wife and two daughters survived him.
Contributions
Among buildings designed by Poulson are the City House
Platform, formerly known as City House and British Railways House, is a building over Leeds railway station that was built by Taylor Woodrow in 1962. The buildings were, like many other railway buildings in the UK, designed by the later-derided ...
(1962) and International Pool (1965–1968), both in Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
, and Forster House in Bradford
Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...
, which was demolished in 2005 as part of the Forster Square
Forster Square in central Bradford was redeveloped in the (2006) Broadway development, but gives its name to Bradford Forster Square railway station and a retail park.
History
Forster Square was laid out in the late-19th century at the bottom ...
redevelopment. The International Pool in Leeds was closed in 2007 and razed to the ground in 2009. The site is now used for car parking.
In an indirect way, Poulson did make a contribution to the UK's broadcasting culture. A special edition of the investigative ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
series ''World in Action
''World in Action'' was a British investigative current affairs programme made by Granada Television for ITV from 7 January 1963 until 7 December 1998. Its campaigning journalism frequently had a major impact on events of the day. Its producti ...
'', ''The Friends and Influence of John L Poulson'', became a cause célèbre
A cause célèbre (,''Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged'', 12th Edition, 2014. S.v. "cause célèbre". Retrieved November 30, 2018 from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/cause+c%c3%a9l%c3%a8bre ,''Random House Kernerman Webs ...
in the debate about the power of Britain's television regulators to interfere with broadcast journalism. The Poulson programme was banned by the then regulator, the ITA, even though its members had not seen it. A furious debate followed in which newspapers united in calling for an end to such "censorship".
Granada Television
ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...
, the makers of ''World in Action'', broadcast a blank screen as a protest against the banning. There was some irony in this: the editor of ''World in Action'' was Raymond Fitzwalter who earlier, as deputy news editor of the ''Telegraph & Argus'' in Bradford, had led an investigation into Poulson's activities, which the newspaper published. Eventually, after the film was shown to the ITA, it was transmitted on 30 April 1973, three months late, and under a different title, ''The Rise and Fall of John Poulson''.
The 1996 BBC television drama
BBC television dramas have been produced and broadcast since even before the public service company had an officially established television broadcasting network in the United Kingdom. As with any major broadcast network, drama forms an importan ...
serial ''Our Friends in the North
''Our Friends in the North'' is a British television drama serial produced by the BBC. It was originally broadcast in nine episodes on BBC2 in early 1996. Written by Peter Flannery, it tells the story of four friends from Newcastle upon Tyne ...
'', written by Peter Flannery
Peter Flannery (born 12 October 1951) is an English playwright and screenwriter. He was born in Jarrow, County Durham and educated at the University of Manchester. He is best known for his work while a resident playwright at the Royal Shake ...
, contains a character, John Edwards (played by Geoffrey Hutchings
Geoffrey Hutchings (8 June 1939 – 1 July 2010) was an English stage, film and television actor.
Early life and career
Hutchings was born in Dorchester, Dorset, England. After attending Hardye's School, he studied French and Physical Educati ...
), who is closely based on Poulson. One of the reasons the production took so long to reach the screen—Flannery had originally written it for the stage in 1982—was the fear of the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
that Poulson and others fictionalised in the drama might take legal action. In the event, the deaths of Poulson and T. Dan Smith in 1993 finally allowed the production to commence.
* ''Nothing to declare: The Political Corruptions of John Poulson'' by Michael Gillard (John Calder, London 1980)
* ''The Price'' by John Poulson (Michael Joseph, London 1981)
* ''Web of Corruption: The Full Story of John Poulson and T. Dan Smith'' by Raymond Fitzwalter and David Taylor (Granada, London; 1981)
* "John Poulson: Obituary", ''The Times'', 4 February 1993, p. 19
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poulson, John