Shard tycoon Irvine Sellar dies aged 82

Irvine Sellar, the London property “giant” who built The Shard against all the odds, has died at the age of 82 after a short illness.

Tributes poured in to a remarkable 65-year career that began on his father’s stall on Petticoat Lane and led in the Sixties to him becoming one of the kings of Carnaby Street before selling up and turning to property.

The veteran developer was still working full time on a £775 million project to transform the Paddington area with a “cube” office block designed by Shard architect Renzo Piano until shortly before his death yesterday morning.

Mr Sellar, who was born in north London in 1934, will be best remembered for the 1016ft-tall “vertical town” in London Bridge that transformed the capital’s skyline.

The Shard’s unique design was famously scribbled on the back of a menu at a dinner attended by Mr Sellar and Mr Piano but was widely believed to be “unbuildable” by planners and the property industry.

Mr Sellar, who had no formal training in the property sector and whose previous development business Ford Sellar Morris had collapsed spectacularly in the early Nineties recession, bought the site that The Shard would be built on November 1998.

He saw the potential for a then deeply unfashionable part of London after a Government White Paper recommended that planners should favour tall buildings close to major transport hubs,

The scheme was finally given the go-ahead in November 2003 by then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott following a public enquiry. Construction got underway in 2008 and The Shard was inaugurated in July 2012 with a dazzling light show.

It was initially written off as Europe’s biggest white elephant because of the lack of office tenants but is now virtually fully let.

Tony Pidgley, chairman of housebuilder Berkeley Homes, told the Standard: “Irvine Sellar was one of the all time greats. A man with incredible vision, foresight and energy. He never knew what it was for somebody to say he couldn’t do something. His passing is a great loss, not just to me as a friend but to our whole industry.”

Dan Van Gelder, boss of developer Exemplar and former Westminster Property Association chairman,said: “London was everything to Irvine. His dad had a stall near my grandfather’s in Petticoat Lane, and Irvine and my dad spent their lives entwined. He had a real hunger to succeed, which he did so always against the odds and the establishment. He was hard working, often challenging but always entertaining. The market will be a quieter place without him.”

James Goldsmith, head of leasing at City investors AXA IM, who previously helped with the Shard leasing, said: “Working with Irvine was a privilege and career highlight - something to tell the grandchildren about. A charisma that would light up any room; instinctive and smart, he could be stubborn as you like!

“That’s why he achieved what so many said couldn’t be done. He chose his counsel carefully and if he didn’t always show it, always listened. Every conversation had purpose and things were quickly sorted. A knowing glint and wicked sense of honour made sure of that. People will talk about losing a wonderful character but that hardly does justice. The beautiful and enduring legacy that is London’s The Shard begins to do so....”

Mr Sellar, who left school at 16, had originally been destined for a career in accountancy but he found it dull and ended up by chance selling gloves at Petticoat Lane and his father’s shop in St Albans when a batch was rejected by another store.

He and his wife Elizabeth opened a store in Carnaby Street at the start of the Swinging Sixties, which became the Mates by Irvine Sellar national fashion chain of 90 stores. It was the first retailer to sell both men’s and women’s clothing in the same store. He sold the business in 1981.

Mr Sellar, who was married with three children and lived in Mayfair, will be succeeded at the helm of the family business by his son James.