Freeholds For Sale at York and Bradford: Where Next?

Former SPCK Bookshop, York - Freehold For Sale

Phil Groom writes:

Thanks to the intrepid asingleblog for these photos of the York shop, now up for sale; and thanks to David Ormondroyd for the original tip off when he spotted the sign going up on Friday October 30th.

Interestingly, the company handling the sale is none other than DTZ, which readers with good memories will remember from the notices posted on the shop doors when the Charity Commission started seizing control: Changing the Locks: Official Notices as seen in Chester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Worcester. At the time of posting, this property does not appear to be listed at www.dtz.com.

Would purchase include fittings, fixtures and stock, I wonder? Judging from the photo below there’s actually quite a bit of stock left.

The other freehold properties are Bradford (For Sale sign spotted by Bradforddian), Canterbury, Exeter, and Truro. Exeter, of course, is history, but all five properties are still, if SPCK have the gumption to enforce it, subject to a seven year covenant — full details here (pdf, 745kb), excerpt below — restricting use of the the premises to trading as Christian bookshops. I wonder if the Interim Manager, having inherited the covenant, will insist upon any subsequent purchaser abiding by it?

Restrictive Usage Covenant

Former SPCK Bookshop, York - Freehold for Sale

Photos taken on Sunday evening, November 1st, 2009.

Chichester: The Door is Shut. Only Durham remains.

Matt Wardman writes:

These are two photos cross-posted from the ASingleBlog site. The former-SPCK Bookshop in Chichester has been closed on the instructions of the Charity Commission.

This is sad, and yet it means that – exactly as per the takeover of the SPCK-SSG charity by the Charity Commission Interim Manager – those trying to resolve this are now dealing with people of integrity, so we can at least say that Chichester is now on the way out of the swamp.

So the Brewer cash-generating, personal-expenditure subsidising, money-grubbing, supplier-swindling, staff-bullying, legality-avoiding (e.g., lack of required liability insurance), asset-stripping, and Durham Cathedral brand-poisoning, activities can now only be carried on in the Durham Cathedral Bookshop.

Every day that the Brewer-boys retain control of that shop provides a further opportunity for abuse.

Will someone in authority please finish the job?

Here are the Chichester Photos:

and finally….. Durham?

David Keen writes

It sounds like the bookshop formerly known as SPCK Chichester is now closed, which leaves only Durham still under the control of the Brewer brothers. Durham Cathedral have already given them notice to quit - by April next year – but the Charity Commissioners may have other views.

If Chichester has been closed because the CC’s deem it to be an asset of the former ‘Society of St. Stephen the Great’ charity, and therefore part of the tribunal settlement with former staff, then logic suggests that they do the same with Durham. Every other remaining shop in the former SPCK chain is already under Charity Commissioners control.

If you’re planning to buy anything from Durham, then you might want to get a move on. The Cathedral want to re-open the shop after they’ve evicted the Brewers, but I can’t see the Commissioners waiting until April 2010. Former staff have been promised full payment of their tribunal settlement within 3 months, so I guess the CC’s will be looking to identify assets during that time frame.

And that will be that: the end of the SPCK bookshop chain in its final incarnation. Several former shops have reopened under new management, and places like Durham will probably be viable under proper management, but there’s wider issues in Christian bookselling, and this isn’t exactly the best time to be starting up a new shop.

Still a stack of ongoing issues:
- If SPCK passed on the shops to the Brewers under a covenant stating that they should continue to operate as Christian bookshops, does that still stand now the Charity Commissioners have taken possession?
- If so, will we have a government agency running a chain of Christian bookshops? (!!??!)
- SPCK themselves have been very quiet for much of the last 2 years, possibly for legal reasons. But having made the decision to hand the bookshops over to Mark and Phil Brewer, there has to be some kind of review of that decision, and some learning of lessons.
- There are other untraced monies, like pension contributions.
- At what point will Phil and Mark Brewer be brought to justice, rather than simply be forced by the courts to cough up what they already owe?

…And so on…. please pray for all the folk caught up in this, it’s deeply sad, and bookshop staff are caught in an incredibly difficult position. However if a stocktake (of the orthodox sort) in Durham is on the cards, then that might be of some help to the Charity Commissioners.

cross posted from St. Aidan to Abbey Manor

Taking Stock in Chichester

Phil Groom writes:

I have been informed that the Charity Commission are now closing in on the Chichester shop. Anyone in Chichester, please keep your eyes peeled and cameras ready to record any suspicious activity…

Newcastle: Access Made Easy

Phil Groom writes:

Thanks to David Scott-King, who took these photos on August 10, 2009. Sorry, I know it’s more tragedy than irony, but I had to laugh…

Newcastle Christian Bookshop

Interim Manager's Notice: Access Restricted

Unopened post ... but what's that I see??

Access Made Easy

Loose Ends and a Lost Cause?

Phil Groom writes:

1. Loose Ends from the Cartoon Competition: Two New Entries

First from Mousey:

From Mousey: There must be countless ways to sort your cistern

Second from our photographer in Durham, a peek inside the abandoned Brewermobile. David Keen said the Brewers were left with no room for manoeuvre, but I can see — OK, let’s not go there. A precaution against swine flu, perhaps?

Phibreman strikes again: Inside the Brewermobile

Thanks guys!

2. A Lost Cause?

OK, perhaps I am unduly pessimistic: perhaps someone does care. Be that as it may, somehow I missed this photo of the Winchester shop window from my last post, but it seems to sum up the state of the place most aptly:

Winchester's Shop Window - Who Cares?

Winchester Revisited

Interim Manager's Notice, Winchester

Phil Groom writes:

On Monday this week I was in Winchester, so decided to pop along to the former SPCK, reputedly trading independently as Winchester Christian Bookshop, to check out the wow factor for myself. Like the others we’ve seen, however, the shop was closed, no entry permitted without the express authority of the Charity Commission’s Interim Manager, Peter Gotham.

Winchester, once home to one of SPCK’s flagship stores, hub of the company’s secondhand trade, is now home to a whitewashed tomb, all sign of the shop’s former glory and ownership painted over:

Former SPCK Bookshop, Winchester - July 20, 2009

Inside, as I peered through the darkened doorway, the corpse — for that, sadly, is what I was looking at — looked surprisingly healthy:

Surprisingly well stocked

But neglected, unattended, unopened post strewn across the doormat, piling up in the doorway:

Winchester's unopened mail

How long? I wondered. The STL Bulletin – top right in the picture – was the giveaway: that’s the July edition, sent out back in May; we’re now into the August issue. That’s at least two months’ mail simply stacking up, probably more — untouched, I suspect, since the Interim Manager’s notice was posted on the door.

Is there no one in Winchester or in the other towns where this is happening — no local church leaders or Christian groups — willing to step into the breach, to approach the Charity Commission and say, “Allow us to take this off your hands…”? Is there no one capable of drawing up a business plan, of envisioning a way forward?

SPCK abdicated their responsibility back in 2006. The Brewers have shown themselves to be incompetent clowns if not outright criminals and have, quite rightly, been disenfranchised. The Charity Commission have seized control but, if this evidence is anything to go by, they don’t appear to have the resources — nor, perhaps, the resolve — to run the show. It’s protective custody rather than proactive concern.

Where do we go from here?

Faking it in Canterbury and Google in a Kerfuffle

Phil Groom writes:

Thank you to Richard Long for bringing us this latest picture from Canterbury, showing the former SPCK/SSG all brightly painted and decked out as ‘Canterbury Christian Bookshop’:

Canterbury Christian Bookshop, July 2009

Richard writes:

I don’t actually know what the current status of the ‘Canterbury Christian Bookshop’ is, but anyone who has been following the saga of the former SPCK shops will not be surprised to learn that it was shut when we visited on a busy Saturday afternoon. Despite the fresh coat of red paint, hand-written signs on the door told a slightly different story. The shop appears to be open about 4 days a week, and was appealing for both volunteer staff and second-hand books.

Somewhat bizarrely, our dear friends at Google seem to have got themselves into a kerfuffle over who owns or operates or does whatever is being done to this particular shop as well: their search results link it to Canterbury City Council:

Google Search Result for 'Canterbury Christian Bookshop'

Maybe Google are right and there’s actually a religious revival going on in Canterbury — it is the seat of Archdruid Rowan, after all — but I suspect genuine confusion is closer to the truth; and if even Google are getting themselves so kerfuffulated, what chance is there for the rest of us?

The shop has certainly changed since the last photo we had back in February 2008 when Dave Walker posted about it. Dave’s original post isn’t available, of course, since Mr J Mark ‘Bully Boy’ Brewer huffed and puffed in his ultimately futile attempt to blow the evidence away this time last year, but here’s a screenshot from the archives at Cease & Desist:

In Canterbury - Dave Walker, 12 Feb 2008

The question now is who is responsible for this shop? If either Peter Gotham or Fergus Jack should happen to read this, I’d urge you, gentlemen: please get over there now and take control of the premises before there are any further unauthorised auctions, rebranding exercises or asset shuffling. Please don’t let Canterbury go the way of Exeter.

Thank you.

Changing the Locks: Official Notices as seen in Chester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Worcester

Phil Groom writes:

• Updated July 11, 2009

Thanks to our intrepid photographers in Chester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Worcester for these snapshots of the official ‘Changing the Locks’ notices (see previous post). Transcripts below the photos.

1. Chester

The locks on this property have been changed...

Notice:
The locks on this property have been changed under the authority of the Interim Manager of Saint Stephen the Great Charitable Trust (1119839-1) who was appointed by Order of the Charity Commission for England and Wales, made under S. 18(1)(VII) of the Charities Act 1993 as amended by the Charities Act 2006, on 28 April 2009.

If access is required to the premises please contact Fergus Jack at DTZ on 0207 643 6579

Fergus Jack

DTZ
48 Warwick Street, London W1B 5NL
Tel: +44 (0)20 3296 4494

2. Newcastle-upon-Tyne

… and thanks to yet another intrepid photographer in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Again, transcript below the picture.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne - Keep Out, by Order of the Interim Manager

NOTICE

St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust
(Registered no 1119839-1)

8 Ridley Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8JW

Take notice that I, Peter Gotham, was appointed Interim Manager of the Business and Assets of St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust by the Charity Commission under case no. 685451 on 28 April 2009.

No entry to this building is permitted without my express authority.

Any enquiries regarding access should be addressed during office hours to:

Fergus Jack

Telephone: 0207 643 6579

P Gotham
Interim Manager
St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust

… and if anyone’s wondering, there is still some stock in the Newcastle shop:

Newcastle Shop, July 2009

3. Worcester

Courtesy of Doug Chaplin, aka Clayboy:

Worcester - No entry to this building is permitted...

NOTICE

St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust
(Registered no 1119839-1)

105 High Street, Worcester, WR1 2HS

Take notice that I, Peter Gotham, was appointed Interim Manager of the Business and Assets of St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust by the Charity Commission under case no. 685451 on 28 April 2009.

No entry to this building is permitted without my express authority.

Any enquiries regarding access should be addressed during office hours to:

Fergus Jack

Telephone: 0207 643 6579

P Gotham
Interim Manager
St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust

Changing the Locks?

David Keen writes:

On the grapevine yesterday….

“I have just been told that this morning the locks on the door of Newcastle shop have been changed, and a notice has been placed on the door by the Interim Managers re the Charity Commission investigation.”

Can anyone else confirm this? Is there any news from the other shops?

It would make sense, with the Charity Commissioners taking control of St. Stephen the Great assets. If true, it may also show that, as far as the CC is concerned, the change of name last year to ENC Management was a smoke and mirrors exercise designed to get SSG out of its financial obligations.

There is possibly another SSG asset parked near Durham Cathedral, so if you see this go up for auction in the name of the Charity Commissioners, please give generously.

Meanwhile if you see anyone fiddling with the locks on a former SPCK shop, please ask what they’re doing. If they represent the Charity Commissioners, then bless them loudly. If they try to disguise a Texan accent and have a van with the engine running parked outside, then be suspicious.