Gorton made this millionaire. This is what he’s doing for Gorton.

Self-made tycoon and Dragons Den star Theo Paphitis on his memories of arriving as an immigrant and growing up as a ‘latchkey kid’ in tough 1960s east Manchester – and how it has made him want to give something back to the area

Business mogul Theo Paphitis says he hopes a new youth centre in his hometown of Gorton will help disadvantaged kids ‘find their talent’ and escape poverty.

The self-made millionaire and star of TV’s Dragon’s Den is one of the donors helping to fund the £5.8 million centre near Belle Vue.

The state-of-the-art facility, due to open later this year, will offer a range of activities from sports such as football and boxing to rock climbing and cookery, hair and beauty, and film and media for an entry fee of just 50p.

Dad-of-five Theo, 60, who is donating part of the annual £1.3 million running costs, was this week given a behind-the-scenes tour of the centre on Hyde Road, which is still under construction.

And in an exclusive interview with the Manchester Evening News, the entrepreneur – worth a reported £300 million – said it was a project very close to his heart.

It is a little known fact that, despite spending a large part of his life in London, Theo and his family spent several years in Manchester after arriving in the UK from Cyprus in the 1960s.

Born in Limassol on the Mediterranean island in 1959, Theo moved to the north west when he was six and briefly lived in a rented terraced house in Old Trafford, before his dad bought a two up, two down in Gorton when he was aged seven.

“I was a first generation immigrant and I couldn’t speak a word of English when I got here”, Theo said. “I knew ‘water’ – that was it. That was the only word I knew.

“So it was really strange coming here and going to school where there was no support for anyone that didn’t speak English. They just put you in a class and you thought ‘what the bloody hell is going on here.’

“There was no way of communicating, it was tough. Eventually you learn a few words so you can communicate and then eventually you integrate within the place.

“It wasn’t so bad, nobody had anything.

“If you had a bike you were rich. If you had two parents – my god you were special.

“And I was a bit of a novelty because there wasn’t a lot of first generation immigrants here at the time. It has changed a huge amount and is very diverse now.”

Looking around in the middle of the modern centre, situated close to the huge Tesco store that now dominates the centre of Gorton, Theo said in many ways it was unrecognisable from the terraced houses and cobbled streets which characterised the area in the sixties.

“I used to live just up the road from here. I was a latchkey kid wandering around the streets.

“There was Belle Vue here, we used to bunk into there, hang around on the railway sidings, play on the trains, get into mischief.

“Whenever I brought my kids to Manchester it was always a source of amusement for them – ‘oh God dad’s going to drive through Gorton and show us where he used to live.’

“In the end they got fed up so I stopped, but I’ve been back a lot.

“It’s so very different now. Most of the streets have been knocked down. Some of them have been re-named. My old school (Peacock Street Primary School) has been knocked down. Some may say it should have been knocked down a lot earlier. I never used to go there a lot in fairness.

“Don’t forget, we’re talking just 20 years after the war when I was here. So it still had residues of the war everywhere, even 20 years on.

“If you looked at the railway sidings you could find an army helmet still lying there, half broken, on the floor which a soldier had just discarded.

“It was that sort of place. There was coke – not the sort you might be thinking – but coal coke that would fall off the trucks and trains.

“You could collect it and sell it there was that much of it around.

“We used to collect it and light fires and sit there all night, lighting fires, talking nonsense.

“The church had a youth centre that was open for one evening, I think it was a Thursday, for about two and a half hours, and you would go there.

“But other than that there was nowhere to go, to do anything, to see anything, to talk to anyone.”

It may have changed architecturally but Gorton still remains one of the city’s most socially disadvantaged areas.

And Theo says his experiences growing up here inspired him to want to give something back to the area.

The £6.5 million HideOut Youth Zone is been being built on land donated by Manchester city council, using a generous donation from Salford bookmaker Fred Done and being overseen by the charity OnSide who also run the successful youth centre in Harpurhey.

However, it will also cost around £1.3 million a year to run, and, as it’s costing just 50p a day for kids to use, the contributions of donors, of which Theo was one, will be vital.

“The fact this place exists, as a place to come to first of all, is amazing,” said Theo, one of the centre’s founder patrons.

“Then when you look at what you get when you walk through the front door, it blows your hat off.

“I’m very fortunate to have been to many of the centres, but if I hadn’t and I walked in through these front doors, even whilst we’re still weeks away from the completion, I could visualise everything.

“Every time I meet some of the youngsters I think ‘what would it have been like if this was around when I was younger?’ You’d never go home.”

The centre, due to open in late spring/early summer, will have an indoor climbing wall, a four court sports hall, an outdoor 3G football pitch, skate park, dance and drama studio, enterprise and employability suite, a fully equipped gym, an arts and crafts studio, a boxing and martial arts gym, a music room, a recording studio and much more.

And Theo says he hopes it’ll help people find their calling in life just as he did.

“It’s not just about things to do – it’s about awareness and opportunity,” he said.

“Every kid has got a talent. It’s just the opportunity they are lacking.

“What you get here is an opportunity for them to see things, find their talent and be guided towards those opportunities.

“Whereas that wouldn’t normally exist.

“Kids don’t know what they don’t know. That’s a fact. In fact a lot of adults don’t either by the way.

“So to come here and see things in the flesh is massive.

“Yes, they see things on television, but it’s a difference between seeing them on television and actually climbing a wall.

“People watch Spiderman but they don’t think they’re actually going to be climbing a wall.

“You can turn up and do that here. You can do so many things – music, or media or boxing or martial arts. You name it – football, skateboarding.

“All these things exist but in most kids’ lives they exist either on telly or on a computer game. Not for real, you can’t really have a go. You can here.

“Everyone has got a talent – whether it’s business, or sport, or with their hands. It’s getting the opportunity and finding that talent that is the key.”

Theo certainly had a talent for business. After moving to London aged nine, he began working as a tea boy and filing clerk at a city of London insurance broker.

Aged 21 he began selling mortgages before setting up a property finance company aged, 23, the first block in his now considerable multi-million pound empire.

He bought stationary chain Ryman’s from administration and has developed a reputation for turning around failing companies. His current portfolio also includes Robert Dyas and Boux Avenue.

In 2006, he sold his equity stake in the UK and EU segment of the global lingerie brand, La Senza, for a reported £100m.

He co-owns Red Letter Days with fellow Dragons’ Den businessman Peter Jones, one of his many investments arising from the Manchester filmed talent show.

However he also has a long history of donating to good causes and Theo has urged fellow wealthy Mancunians to sign up and donate to the centre.

“Philanthropy and charitable giving in some ways are mislabelled”, he said.

“You know and I know that when we give, we feel so much better.

“In some ways I feel quite guilty giving, cos I’m getting as much as a kick as anyone else.

“And when you’re in a fortunate position to do be able to do that, it’s an amazing feeling.

“I got a phone call from (AO.com founder and OnSide Charmian) John Roberts when the centre first got onto the starting blocks.

“He said ‘you’re a Gorton boy aren’t you?’ and I said ‘yes.’

“He said ‘well we need some founder patrons because we’re starting one in Gorton’ and I said ‘never.’

“It took me a millisecond to say yes

“Manchester is an amazing city. It has so much wealth.

“So much potential, it’s such a vibrant city.

“But then at the same time, you look around and see how many children are living in poverty in this area. Which is tragic. I think it’s around 60 percent, it’s a mad figure.

“So whoever has come from the area, and by that I mean Manchester, and who has been able to grasp the opportunities Manchester has given them and benefit from it, wouldn’t it be great to just give a little bit back?”

View original article here: https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/gorton-made-millionaire-what-hes-17902792

By Chris Slater 10:01, 15 MAR 2020