A man with real drive

The story of National Car Parks is now one of the City’s fairy-tale legends. After five years in the Navy, Sir Donald Gosling was working as a trainee surveyor with Westminster City Council in 1949, when 24-year-old Ronald Hobson called to see him.

Hobson had conceived the idea of clearing away the rubbish from a bombed site in Holborn and using it as a car park, but needed planning permission. Gosling told him how to get it. The two became friends and soon after formed a partnership, which still flourishes after 30 years. They had £200 between them but, after a slow start, were looking for more bombed sites.

Now with net