The Kensington Society AGM 2022

After one cancelled AGM in 2020 and one held virtually in 2021, the Kensington Society will finally be holding a face-to-face Annual General Meeting in Kensington Town Hall’s Great Hall again, on Monday 13 June. We look forward to meet as many of our members and friends as can possibly make it.

The AGM will follow our normal order of business, with a report on our works this last year, a report about our finances, and the election of trustees. If there is a specific question you would like to ask, please email us ahead of time.

Our guest speaker will be Sir Peter Bazalgette, who will talk about his fascinating great-great-grandfather, Sir Joseph Bazalgette, chief engineer to the London Metropolitan Board of Works, who designed and built the great revolutionary Victorian sewage system that rescued Parliament and London from the ‘Great Stink’ and helped to eliminate cholera and reducing of outbreaks of typhus and typhoid. Counter’s Creek sewer, on Kensington’s west boundary, is part of the network he built.

Sir Peter has had a no less stellar career. Starting as a BBC News trainee, he was headhunted by Esther Rantzen as a researcher on That’s Life! After the BBC had put him in charge of producing the programme Food and Drink, he set up his own production company, Bazal, which created BBC hits like Ready Steady Cook, Changing Rooms and Ground Force. In 1990, he sold Bazal to Guardian-owned Broadcast Communications, which in 1998 became the UK arm of Dutch production giant Endemol. Between 2005 and 2008 he was chairman of Endemol UK and creative director of the Endemol Group, helping it grow to one of the world’s largest TV and film production conglomerates.

Since 2016 he is non-executive chairman of ITV. He is also co-chair of the Creative Industries Council, a joint forum between industry and government, and since 1 January 2022 he is chair and pro-chancellor of the Royal College of Art. From 2013 to 2017 he was chairman of Arts Council England, where he battled for public spending on the arts as ‘investment’ rather than subsidy. He was also president of the Royal Television Society 2010-2017, chairman of the English National Opera 2012-2015, and deputy chair of the National Film & TV School for several years.

It’s not surprising the Sir Peter, who was knighted in 2012 for services to broadcasting, has been described as “the most influential man in British broadcasting”.

The AGM will begin at 7.00pm with doors opening at 6.30pm. The new mayor, Councillor David Lindsay, has invited all attendees to join him afterwards in the Mayor’s Parlour for a wine reception.

This is a free event with no need for booking, but a donation of £10 for each non-member attending will be appreciated and can be paid at the door.