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Who we are
The Golden Square Group is a third generation family business, with a mixed property portfolio, based mainly in London.
Westminster Land Group Ltd and various associated companies were created by Aubrey Wood, the grandfather of the four Wood siblings in the late 1960s and 70s. During the 1980s, John Wood became involved in running the Business, creating his own companies, Brighton Land Ltd, South Kensington Property Company Ltd and Buildinvest Ltd. In the mid 90s, Central London Estates Ltd was created, taking ownership of several properties previously held within the Aubrey Wood Trust.
Aubrey Wood
Aubrey was born in illustrious Grimsby in 1907, the middle son of an immigrant tailor. He was a brilliant student, obtaining top grades in every subject except art and singing. When he left school, he went on to study law and came top of his year across the country. He met and married his wife Ada in 1933, and his only child, John was born two years later. Aubrey practiced law until after the war, when he began building up his property portfolio.
Property prices were very low and it was cheap to borrow money. Within 20 years, the portfolio was very substantial. Despite his huge success, Aubrey always lived modestly, driving an old Ford and wearing cheap, over-sized suits. He died in December 1988. His kindness and generosity to tenants who were struggling to pay their rent was evidenced by their very significant turn out at his funeral.
John Wood
John, the only son of Aubrey and Ada Wood, was born in March 1935. He was a student at St Paul’s School, then Wadham College, Oxford, where he ostensibly studied law, failing however to attend a single lecture, but never missing a party. He was a gifted boxer, who was picked to represent Oxford, but was unable to do so when he broke his nose in training. He went on to do articles at Withers, before setting up in practice on his own.
He met and married Diane in April 1960 and had four children, Kate, David, Philip and Gideon. He was a very talented lawyer, who loved the cut and thrust of litigation and took many cases to the House of Lords. Almost as a side-line, he started his own property company in the 1970s, and ran this a long side his legal practice. In 1988, a bout of cancer caused him to retire from the law. He then inherited Aubrey’s portfolio to add to his own, merging the two companies to form what is now known as the Golden Square Group. He died in June 2010, much loved and much missed.
Ethos
The Golden Square Group aims to recruit talented and determined individuals, who are motivated to further develop their skills and are prepared to work hard as part of a team with a common goal. Collectively, we strive to maintain and build upon a multi-generational family business, that promotes and embodies the family’s core values of integrity, trust and fairness.
We aim to ensure a sense of morality and decency, in all aspects of business life. We shall treat those that we encounter as we would hope to be treated ourselves. The maintenance of high ethical standards, in external and internal relationships, is essential to the success of our Business. We encourage the education and personal development of all our employees, supporting and assisting opportunities for learning and self-development wherever possible. We are committed to philanthropic behaviour, ensuring that customers and business partners are treated with kindness, decency and consideration at all times.
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