Hansom

Bear all
Step aside Peter Rogers, Nigel Griffiths and Michael Latham, construction has chosen a new leader … Winnie the Pooh. The cuddly creature was put forward as the “patron saint” of the industry by David Adamson, director of Cambridge University’s estates arm. Why so? Was it because the industry has very little brain and an obsession with honey? Indeed not. Adamson supported his nomination by showing guests a picture of Pooh being dragged downstairs by Christopher Robin, over the caption: “Bumping along can’t be the only way to get there.” The suggestion was greeted with wild applause by the gathered hordes.

Shurely shum mishtake …
The Housing Design Awards have been given a facelift and are to be relaunched this week. The facelifter was consultant Design for Homes, and part of its strategy was to give the gongs their very own website. Sadly, HousingDesignAwards.org had too many letters, so how about hda.org? That domain had been registered years ago but never used. It all looked promising until enquiries revealed it was the property of the Heavy Drinkers Association. And apparently they’re still out to lunch.

Little Britain, big cheques
The behemoth that is the Little Britain regatta continues apace. This years was launched at the London Boat Show last week – the picture above was taken at the event, and shows Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson and Ben Ainslie receiving a £14,500 cheque from the organisers on behalf of two sailing charities.

The race for construction and property teams will be open to 250 yachts this year. One hopes the increased traffic at the event, to be held on 8-11 September, doesn’t spark more of the accidents that befell participants at last year’s event, and that event chairman David Kong (presenting the cheque) can control the crew of his Domus boat, who were ticked off for rowdy behaviour.

Killer Ken
News reaches me of violent behaviour from mild-mannered Ken Shuttleworth who, it appears, has a history of beating people up. Don Shuttleworth, Ken’s brother, revealed at Make’s first anniversary party last week that the 10-year-old Ken had once broken Don’s arm in the Shuttleworth family’s back garden. “Ken was doing all these judo moves he’d learned,” recalls Don, who was a tender eight at the time. “He’d learned how to throw me but, unfortunately, I hadn’t been taught how to land.” Norman Foster be warned.

Brad 4 Frank
Brad Pitt’s surprise split from Jennifer Aniston last week does have a bright side for the Troy star. A confirmed architecture nut, he has been helping his friend Frank Gehry on a scheme in Los Angeles, and has reportedly also had some input into Gehry’s first British project, the £220m King Alfred’s Leisure Centre in Brighton. Rumours that Tom Cruise is reprising his mission impossible role at Elephant & Castle remain unconfirmed.

Trench warfare
Anyone in search of a good drunken brawl at this year’s MIPIM could do worse than pitch up at the London stand. Developer Arrowcroft has been allocated a stand for its Croydon Gateway scheme almost directly opposite the funders of a rival scheme, Schroders. Only a scale model of London divides the two teams, who after years of disputes are still at loggerheads over the scheme. “People are already calling it no man’s land,” said one concerned observer.