National Car Parks

Last updated

National Car Parks
Company typePrivate
IndustryCar parks and public outsourcing
Founded1931
FounderFrederick Lucas
HeadquartersEngland
Key people
Hiroyasu Matsui - Chairman, Co-CEO and CCO, and Rob England - Co-CEO and COO
OwnerPark24
Development Bank of Japan
Website www.ncp.co.uk

National Car Parks (NCP) is a private car park operator, with car parks in towns, cities, airports, London Underground and National Rail stations.

Contents

History

NCP car park in Brewer Street, London NCP Parking Brewer Street London.JPG
NCP car park in Brewer Street, London

NCP was founded in 1931 by Colonel Frederick Lucas. In October 1948 Sir Ronald Hobson, together with his business partner Sir Donald Gosling, founded Central Car Parks when the pair invested £200 in a bombsite in Holborn, Central London to create a car park. In 1959 Central Car Parks took over NCP from Anne Lucas, the widow of Colonel Lucas. [1]

Hobson and Gosling expanded the company by recognising the under-developed state of many post-World War II British cities and towns. The pair began buying vacant sites in city centres, converting them into car parks. NCP then began managing sites on behalf of third parties.

In 1998, after a flotation of the business on the London Stock Exchange was cancelled at a late stage, the company was bought by US-based property and travel services provider Cendant for £801 million with Hobson, Gosling, and their family trusts who owned 72.5% of the National Parking Corporation taking £580 million. [2]

NCP was sold to 3i in July 2005 for £555million. [3] In 2007, NCP was acquired by Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund II. [4] In 2007, the outsourced services business was spun off into NCP Services. [5] In August 2017, Macquarie Group sold NCP to Park24 and Development Bank of Japan. [6] [7]

Operations

NCP provides car parking across the UK. It has car parks at Heathrow Airport, Manchester Arena and Birmingham New Street railway station.

In 2014, NCP signed partnerships with online and mobile parking consolidators, having opened up its off-street pre-booking technology to third-party providers and parking retailers for the first time. Deals were struck with JustPark, Parkjockey and YourParkingSpace, enabling their users NCP spaces at over 100 sites. [8]

Events

Since 2010, House of Holland has booked the Brewer Street NCP to host its catwalk shows for London Fashion Week; previous attendees have included Alexa Chung, Jamie Winstone and Rachel Bilson. [9]

In Cardiff, Evans Cycles have created the Urban Duel, a BMX racing event that takes place in NCP Dumfries Place. There are plans to host this event at other car parks around the country. [10]

Art Drive exhibited its collection of classic BMWs designed by famous artists including Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Jeff Koons and Roy Lichtenstein at the Great Eastern Street NCP in Shoreditch. [11]

As part of the Manchester International Festival, NCP arranged a live relay screening of Kenneth Branagh’s new play Macbeth with hundreds of fans turning up to the open-air screening. [12]

Controversies

In the early 1990s, NCP was accused of planting spies in rival group Europarks, but Britain's then biggest industrial espionage trial ended with the full acquittal of NCP chief executive Gordon Layton. [13]

In November 2013, following the announcement that Hull was to be the UK City of Culture 2017, NCP managing director Duncan Bowins took to popular social media website Facebook and branded the city a "sh*thole" – despite the fact that his car parks took over £1 million from the city each year. [14] This "crude slur" led to Duncan Bowins winning the Award for "Most Inappropriate Use of Social Media" at the Hull Daily Mail Angus Young Awards 2013. [15]

In December 2013, the Crawley News and The Argus reported that NCP staff had been parking in the town's limited disabled bays for convenience. [16] An NCP spokeswoman subsequently issued a statement claiming the pair had parked there to clear leaves from the car park and that there had been nowhere else to park. However, when the Crawley News published a photo clearly showing spaces right next to the disabled bay, the firm's Head of Operations Nigel Sorenson called to apologise and admitted that the incident was "embarrassing and upsetting" for the company. [17]

Part of a car park operated by NCP in Nottingham collapsed on 19 August 2017. Three vehicles were left dangling from the edge of the city centre car park from a floor roughly 50 ft (15m) above the ground, and the entrance and exit were blocked with fallen concrete. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingston upon Hull</span> City surrounded by the East Riding of Yorkshire, England

Kingston upon Hull, usually shortened to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority area in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, 25 miles (40 km) inland from the North Sea and 37 miles (60 km) south-east of York, the historic county town. With a population of 266,463 (2021), it is the fourth-largest city in the Yorkshire and the Humber region after Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parking</span> Act of stopping and disengaging a vehicle and usually leaving it unoccupied

Parking is the act of stopping and disengaging a vehicle and usually leaving it unoccupied. Parking on one or both sides of a road is often permitted, though sometimes with restrictions. Some buildings have parking facilities for use of the buildings' users. Countries and local governments have rules for design and use of parking spaces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">3i</span> British multinational private equity and venture capital company

3i Group plc is a British multinational private equity and venture capital company based in London, England. 3i is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leeds railway station</span> Mainline railway station in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England

Leeds railway station is the mainline railway station serving the city centre of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It is located on New Station Street to the south of City Square, at the foot of Park Row, behind the landmark Queens Hotel. It is one of 20 stations managed by Network Rail. As of December 2023, it was the busiest station in West Yorkshire, as well as in Yorkshire & the Humber, and the entirety of Northern England. It is the second busiest station in the UK outside of London, after Birmingham New Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parking space</span> Designated location for parking a vehicle

A parking space, parking place or parking spot is a location that is designated for parking, either paved or unpaved. It can be in a parking garage, in a parking lot or on a city street. The space may be delineated by road surface markings. The automobile fits inside the space, either by parallel parking, perpendicular parking or angled parking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hull Paragon Interchange</span> Transport interchange in Yorkshire, England

Hull Paragon Interchange is a transport interchange providing rail, bus and coach services located in the city centre of Kingston upon Hull, England. The G. T. Andrews-designed station was originally named Paragon Station, and together with the adjoining Station Hotel, it opened in 1847 as the new Hull terminus for the growing traffic of the York and North Midland (Y&NMR) leased to the Hull and Selby Railway (H&S). As well as trains to the west, the station was the terminus of the Y&NMR and H&S railway's Hull to Scarborough Line. From the 1860s the station also became the terminus of the Hull and Holderness and Hull and Hornsea railways.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morley railway station</span> Railway station in West Yorkshire, England

Morley railway station serves the town of Morley in West Yorkshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wrexham General railway station</span> Railway station in Wrexham, Wales

Wrexham General is the main railway station serving the city of Wrexham, north-east Wales, and one of the two serving the city, alongside Wrexham Central. It is currently operated and mostly served by Transport for Wales, with some additional services provided by Avanti West Coast to London Euston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craven Park, Hull</span> Rugby League stadium in Kingston upon Hull, England

Craven Park is a rugby league stadium located in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is the home of Hull Kingston Rovers, one of two professional rugby league teams based in the city.

The Piccadilly Tower is a proposed development designed by Woods Bagot in Manchester city centre, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humberside Fire and Rescue Service</span> Fire and rescue service in eastern England

Humberside Fire and Rescue Service (HFRS) is the statutory fire and rescue service covering the area of what was the county of Humberside (1974–1996), but now consists of the unitary authorities of East Riding of Yorkshire, Kingston upon Hull, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire in northern England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transport in Leeds</span> Road, rail and bus transportation in Leeds, England

Transport in Leeds consists of extensive road, bus and rail networks in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Public transport in the Leeds area is coordinated and developed by West Yorkshire Metro. The city has good rail and road links to the rest of the country. Leeds railway station is one of the busiest in Britain, and Leeds is connected to the national road network via the A1(M) motorway, M1 motorway and M62 motorway. The city is served by Leeds Bradford Airport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orchard Park Estate</span> Estate in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England

Orchard Park Estate is an area or housing estate situated on the north-western side of Kingston upon Hull, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lincoln Transport Hub</span> Transport interchange located in Lincoln city centre in Lincolnshire, England

The Lincoln Transport Hub is a transport interchange located in Lincoln city centre in Lincolnshire, England. It connects Lincoln railway station with the Central Bus Station across a pedestrianised plaza on St Mary's Street. There is also a 1,000-space multi-storey car park. Lincoln Transport Hub was scheduled to open in December 2017, however it was decided that the accompanying car park should be opened first and swapped the opening schedule. The new bus station opened on 28 January 2018.

APCOA Parking AG (APCOA) is Europe's longest-established full service parking management company. Headquartered at Stuttgart Airport, in Germany, it manages over 1,400,000 parking spaces across 13 countries, and employs approximately 4,500 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commonwealth Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome</span> Arena in Glasgow, Scotland, UK

The Commonwealth Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, known for sponsorship reasons as the Emirates Arena, is an indoor arena and velodrome in Dalmarnock, Glasgow, Scotland. Built for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, these venues hosted the badminton and track cycling events. Situated opposite Celtic Park in the East End of Glasgow, the complex is also the headquarters of Scottish Cycling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Gosling</span> British businessman (1929–2019)

Vice-Admiral Sir Frederick Donald Gosling, was an honorary British vice admiral, Chairman of National Car Parks, and benefactor to naval charities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SpotHero</span>

SpotHero is a digital parking marketplace that connects drivers looking to reserve and pay for parking spaces with parking lots, parking garages and valet services. The company, which operates a mobile app and website as well as a parking developer platform, is available in over 300 cities in the United States and Canada. The company is based in Chicago, Illinois.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">YourParkingSpace</span>

YourParkingSpace is an online marketplace and parking reservation service for drivers looking to find and pre-book parking in the United Kingdom. The website and mobile app feature over 350,000 privately owned and commercially operated parking spaces, which are available to book by the hour, day or month on a subscription basis. As of 2018, YourParkingSpace served over 50 cities across the country. The company is headquartered in Stratford, London.

Sir Ronald Frank Hobson, KCVO (1921–2017) was a British entrepreneur, business-owner and philanthropist.

References

  1. ↑ Ray Clancy, The story of National Car Parks PropertyForum.com 9 October 2008
  2. ↑ Millions for car park entrepreneurs BBC News 24 March 1998
  3. ↑ 3i closes on £555 million acquisition of NCP 3i 1 September 2005
  4. ↑ 3i sells NCP car parks unit for £790M Financial Times 15 March 2007
  5. ↑ NCP to de-merge into two businesses 3i 14 March 2007
  6. ↑ Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund II reaches agreement to sell holding in National Car Parks to Park24 Macquarie Group 14 July 2017
  7. ↑ History Park 24
  8. ↑ NCP partners with trio of mobile first Financial Times 16 October 2014
  9. ↑ House of Holland Vogue 15 September 2012
  10. ↑ Evans, Evans Cycles Urban Dual Evans Cycles 28 October 2012
  11. ↑ Art Drive! @ NCP Car Park Shoreditch Londonist 17 July 2012
  12. ↑ All eyes on Sir Ken as Manchester International Festival bows out Manchester Evening News 22 July 2013
  13. ↑ Car parks chief is cleared of spying on rival The Independent 13 March 1993
  14. ↑ NCP boss in crude Facebook outburst at Hull Hull Daily Mail 30 November 2013
  15. ↑ The Angus Young Awards 2013 Hull Daily Mail 30 November 2013
  16. ↑ Disgust as NCP van parks in disabled bay The Argus 11 December 2013
  17. ↑ NCP embarrassed after staff park in disabled bay Crawley News 19 December 2013
  18. ↑ "Nottingham NCP car park collapse prompts call for answers". BBC News . 21 August 2017. Retrieved 21 August 2017.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to National Car Parks at Wikimedia Commons

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.