Ajit Chambers: Resurrecting London’s Forgotten Stations

Ajit Chambers, the man who bet everything on London’s ghost Tube stations

Ajit Chambers is hammer and tongs at converting 26 of London’s  760 abandoned Tube stations into jazzy entertainment venues.

The 42-year-old entrepreneur set up The Old London Underground Company (TOLUC) to give Londoners a piece of their history.

London Mayor Boris Johnson seems to like his proposal that is also backed by 66 MPs.

So what’s stopping Chambers’ ambitious projects then? The Off Market caught up with him:

Q. Tell us about The Old London Underground company (TOLUC) and how it works?

TOLUC was designed to bring taxpayer-owned land to market. The company’s current operations are to open London’s abandoned/ disused underground tube stations to host a range of businesses in them. I created the company in in 2009 and received a personal pledge of support from the Chairman of TFL and London’s Mayor in 2011.

I was one of youngest bankers working with the board members of big banks advising on the acquisition of large property portfolios (US mortgage market acquisition etc).

Previously living in Switzerland and commuting on a daily basis into Canary Wharf, I worked on delivering personal projects to high net worth individuals across Europe.

Q. What business sector would you define the company as falling into eg development/ social enterprise/ events/ infrastructure etc – feel free to choose more than one!

Imagine a large office in central London with many different departments all in house. TOLUC is completely different and is an organisation that outsources all its departments and runs them as a management team from a central operations room.

The central operations room runs 24 hours a day and has everything hand-written across the main operations wall as it emerges.

Therefore TOLUC operates across development/social enterprise/infrastructure and many more sectors.

Q. What is your vision to bring the stations back to life?

I have worked on the vision to bring London’s ‘ghost’ tube stations back to life for over five years.  There will be three businesses in each site across three different sectors all able to share the same customers.

Firstly, a tourist adventure or experience back into the historic site. Secondly,  a space for events. Thirdly, food, beverage and retail services that can provide services to both the events and the tourist customers. 

Q. Can you give us some examples of the different plans with some of the key stations (last count believe there are 25?)

As of now, 26 stations have been identified. There is a nightclub planned in one of the stations, where the DJ ‘arrives’ as the train driver, the train comes out of a dark tunnel and, the dancefloor is on the track.

Q. What events / operators should we look out for and where [which stations]

The first events have been offered to Exxon Mobile, The Cabinet and Sony to host Beyonce and One Direction album launches. The site itself is still a secret.

Q. When should we expect to see these?

There is a nine-month build time on the first site, during which time universities from around the world have been invited to view the construction as a learning experience related to their individual courses.

Q. How have the ghost stations been used by you so far, what have you done/ events hosted etc?

No ‘ghost’ tube station have been used for operational events so far by TOLUC, however TOLUC facilitated the sale of Brompton Road ghost tube station paying £53m into the taxpayers’ purse and also worked to make Clapham North tube station leasable for a herb-growing business.

Q. What kind of operators and events are you looking to get into the spaces?

I have spent five years making agreements with travel companies worldwide to run a family tourist adventure into the first site.

I also plan to host product press launches for Apple products and album launches for bands such as One Direction.

Q. How will refurbishment/ conversion the space for use be funded?

The funding is through shareholders in TOLUC.  A number of companies have request to purchase shares in TOLUC with the latest offer being 10% of TOLUC for £2.4m. The refurb/conversion cost for the entire site is £2m.

Q. What conversion/ refurbishment challenges have you faced?

Conversion or refurbishment challenges are all the responsibility of our project management team who have spent significant time in the first site to produce the feasibility reports.  Two technical surveys on the site have now been completed showing exact costings of the capital expenditure requirement.

Q. How has the process been working with TFL/ Boris Johnson?

Boris Johnson championed TOLUC after his pledge in 2011. TfL have a process for fair and competitive tendering process of course, keep in mind that I approached TfL in commercial confidence in 2009 with an unsolicited approach and business plan.,

James Caan and Start-Up Loans are also championing the business and invited us into No.10 Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister’s special advisor to discuss the project.

Q. What support have they given you and how involved have they been in reviving the underground spaces?

Boris Johnson has supported TOLUC throughout. A number of conversations have happened between the secretary of state for business and mayor Boris Johnson in order to validate the status of the project along the way.

Q. Your project has been backed by 66 MPs  – how did you manage to get that?

I am managed to get their support by spending time at government dinners and in parliament supporting their causes that I believed in.

Q. How much have you raised so far and what how are you using the investment far?

I have paid for the entire project myself so far to make sure I own 100% of the equity and retain control. I have used Start-Up Loans for cashflow.

I have an offer of investment for £20m which I showed to the Mayor of London, but I have not accepted any investors as the investment offering was only legalised in March 2015.

An official tourism organisation for London has offered £2.4m for 10% of The Old London Underground Company.

Q. What contribution will the venues make to London?

 The venues will create the ability for London to take revenue more hours through the 24 hour period, as venues are deep below ground – meaning tourist can also explore during the nights.

 Q. London already has a lot of event spaces, do we need more?

 A city the size of London will always need more ‘new’ events spaces.

 Q. Who else is on your team and tell us how each of their backgrounds is contributing to the success of TOLUC?

The three key people heading up TOLUC are:

 TOLUC’s non- exec director is Vinopolis founderDuncan Vaughn Arbuckle.

Our commercial director is John Ross, who was previously as senior Schneider electric executive.

Our operations director is Ian Shaw, previously wing commander MoD/RAF so1/s02.

Q. What’s your ultimate vision for TOLUC?

 The ultimate vision for TOLUC is too successfully open our first site then move on to a number of other sites, eventually assisting the integration of other companies into the market through our experience.

Q. Are you involved in any other ventures/ what other ambitions do you have?

 I recently started to diversify into a number of things from ‘pre- order coffee software’ to ‘Coltan shipments’.  What I have found is that other organisations have not built their relationships robustly and are floating

Around asking for favors in exchange for nothing, or trying to discover how to do their basic paperwork regarding Series A investment, or Heads of Terms.  Their unreliability is proving their downfall. 

London

Q. Which other London industries/ sectors are most important to your ongoing success?

 1. Project management in construction

2. Official tourist organisations

3. Government organisations that support TOLUC in a tangible method

Q. Who has shown interest in taking and using underground spaces?

 Almost everyone from Land Rover to Apple. If you name any organisation I can show you the email from them asking for an event in our first site.             

Q. Which underground spaces are the most impressive and why?

 The underground spaces are visually spectacular,  can be used 24 hours a day without creating noise pollution and are the leading edge in creating a second night time tourist market. This CNN report may assist in clarifying; http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/18/business/underground-cities/

Q. Where (cities or concepts) have you looked to for inspiration on how to use the spaces?

 Although we gather all concepts, I spent the first year coming up with the concepts, so in reality we inspired the market, except for Helsinki and Canada who were originators.

Q. Are you working with any architects or design partners?

I have spent five years sourcing the best architects and partners to build a consortium or organization led by a single project manager.

I have a young fresh conceptual designer Kate Lewis and am in advanced discussion for Mace Ltd to manage all project work.

Q. What makes a good event space?

 A good event space has a feeling of its own, without the lighting and music. All the additions are simple additions to enhance the look and feel.

Q. Have you thought about exporting this concept to other unused underground spaces around the world and if so where?

I work with the New York team doing the subways project – the low line and one of my directors has worked for the Paris Metro particularly to explore their emerging spaces.

Our model is completely portable to another country as is our team.

Q. How has London’s business environment been supportive of your plans?

 In truth the London business environment has been a hard place to get this started.  With a large number of supporters, the hardship has been passing through the many levels of theft that may occur from within the stakeholder environment.

I remember a certain senior chap who Boris Johnson wasn’t pleased with during our meeting. Mr. X shall we call him, was fired after tell me that ‘ these stations don’t exist and we will prove they don’t exist.’  The organisation he works for formally apologized to me some years later. 

 Lifestyle

Q. Where do you live?

I now live in East Sussex, after selling my London Property to fund the final parts of the project.  Previously to that I lived in Clapham.

 Q. Why did you choose the location? 

 The peace of the country is what I need for these final parts of the project, also it means that anyone who wants to be involved must at least travel to the meeting.

 Q. Is there any other area you would live?

 I am looking at underground projects in San Francisco at the moment.

 Q. Is there a location you spend of most of your free time?

 I trained as a helicopter pilot so any time near aircraft is my passion.  I spent a lot of time flying in the as365 dauphin, the alouette 3 and R22 Robinson.

I spent my free time at Shoreham airport watching the aircraft land, or on the Sussex downs with my small dog called Cessna.

 Q. Where do you holiday?

 I holiday in a new place every time, most recently Sri Lanka, Dubai and Morocco, previously I visited the 1000 horse races in Mongolia and crossed Italy on a road trip.

Q. What’s your favourite restaurant, bar and hotel?

My favourite restaurant is the tiny Eritrean restaurant in Clapham that used to feed me when I was exhausted working around the clock, it’s called Laryn Bar, the food is spectacular.

My favorite hotel, perhaps the Landsdown place hotel in Hove, Brighton, closed now, but had a bath in the bedroom a picture of the queen mother in the hall,  and black and white tiled bathroom large enough to make you feel like you are in ‘ the haunting’.

Q. Who do you think are the best hotel and restaurant operators at the moment?

Hands down – Chris Corbin, the Wolseley, and his new hotel. He goes in everyday, knows all his staff perfectly and is a true Londoner running fabulously detailed operations that care for their clientele’s experience.

Q. If you could describe your personality in three words what would they be?

 Boris called me Indefatigable, I think my mother would call me ‘ a dreamer’, and personally I would describe myself as ‘ progressive’.

 Q. Is there any other city you would live in?

San Francisco