第六代威斯敏斯特公爵之子將繼承地產王國
In 1677, Sir Thomas Grosvenor married the 12-year-old heiress Mary Davies and came into possession of 500 acres of swamp, pasture and orchards to the west of London.
1677年，托馬斯•格羅夫納爵士(Sir Thomas Grosvenor)迎娶了12歲的女繼承人瑪麗•戴維斯(Mary Davies)，籍此擁有了倫敦以西佔地500英畝的溼地、草地和果園。
More than 330 years later, a majority of those 500 acres remain in the possession of Sir Thomas’s family. Now, however, they are part of London’s most exclusive districts and the core of a property empire worth billions that stretches around the world.
330餘年後的今天，這500英畝土地大多數仍由格羅夫納家族擁有。不過，如今它們是倫敦最高端地段的一部分，也是一個房地產帝國的核心，這個房地產帝國價值以十億美元計，地盤遍及世界各地。
With the death on Tuesday of the sixth Duke of Westminster, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, at the age of 64, the vast Grosvenor estate passes to his 25-year-old son Hugh, who inherits one of London’s remaining great landed estates, albeit one that underwent fierce modernisation during his father’s era.
週二，第六代威斯敏斯特公爵傑拉爾德•卡文迪什•格羅夫納 (sixth Duke of Westminster, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor，上圖爲傑拉爾德•卡文迪什•格羅夫納與英國女王的合照——編者注)去世，享年64歲。這意味着龐大的格羅夫納地產(Grosvenor estate)被傳給他的兒子、現年25歲的休(Hugh)，後者將繼承倫敦僅剩的龐大地產之一，儘管這塊地產在他父親的有生之年經歷了大刀闊斧的現代化改造。
Gerald Grosvenor may have been only the 68th richest person in the world, but he was possibly the wealthiest aristocrat. Born to vast wealth, he proved to be an accomplished businessman.
傑拉爾德•格羅夫納也許只是世界上排名第68位的富豪，但他可能是最富有的貴族。出生於富豪之家的他，證明自己是一個成功的商人。
“For a family that did not need to set themselves up as a professional business, they did an amazing job of creating a very powerful brand — and the legacy of much of that would be down to the late duke,” said Toby Courtauld, chief executive of the listed property company Great Portland Estates.
“對於一個並不需要把自己組建成一家專業企業的家族，他們完成了一項了不起的壯舉，創建了一個非常強大的品牌——而這份品牌遺產的很大一部分要歸功於已故公爵，”上市房地產公司Great Portland Estates首席執行官託比•考陶爾德(Toby Courtauld)表示。
“That will be an enduring legacy. He has created an exceptionally high quality real estate business.”
“那將是一份經久不衰的遺產。他創建了一家極高質素的房地產企業。”
The Grosvenor family’s history began with the arrival of Gilbert le Grosveneur — a surname meaning “master of the hunt” — in 1066 with the Norman conquest. This led the late duke, speaking to an FT reporter in 2004, to give the following advice to young would-be entrepreneurs: “Make sure they have an ancestor who was a very close friend of William the Conqueror.”
格羅夫納家族的歷史始於吉爾伯特•拉格羅夫納(Gilbert le Grosveneur)在1066年諾曼人征服英格蘭(Norman conquest)時期的到來；le Grosveneur這個姓氏意爲“狩獵大師”。這使已故公爵在2004年與英國《金融時報》的一名記者交談時，向有志創業的年輕人提供這樣的建議：“確保他們有一個祖先是征服者威廉(William the Conqueror)的好朋友。”
A descendant married the heiress to the Eaton estate near Chester, north-west England, which became the family seat, in the 1440s; in 1634 the second baronet, Richard Grosvenor, acquired valuable Welsh mining holdings.
吉爾伯特•拉格羅夫納的一個後人娶了伊頓莊園（位於英格蘭西北部切斯特附近）女繼承人，15世紀40年代那裏成爲家族所在地；1634年，第二代男爵理查德•格羅夫納(Richard Grosvenor)獲得了寶貴的威爾士礦業財產。
The estate was imperilled during the English Civil War when it was sequestered after the Grosvenors supported the king, but they reclaimed it through payment of a fine and soon after Sir Thomas made his auspicious marriage to Mary Davies. “We have a very strong survival instinct,” Gerald Grosvenor told the FT. “We have been pursued by every single government and, prior to that, Cromwell had a damn good go at us. The great thing is that we have kept our heads on our shoulders.”
這個莊園曾在英格蘭內戰(English Civil War)期間陷入險境，由於格羅夫納家族支持國王，莊園遭到扣押，但家族通過繳納罰款收回了莊園。之後不久，托馬斯•格羅夫納爵士就與瑪麗•戴維斯結婚，爲家族帶來好運。“我們有一種非常強烈的求生本能，”傑拉爾德•格羅夫納曾告訴英國《金融時報》。“我們受到每一屆政府的拉攏，在那之前，克倫威爾(Cromwell)也曾積極拉攏我們。好在我們家從未遭遇人頭落地的下場。”
In the 1700s the family began developing the London land as a desirable residential area known as Mayfair, centred on Grosvenor Square, today the site of the US embassy. Later the family’s surveyor set out plans for Belgravia.
18世紀頭十年，家族開始開發被稱爲梅菲爾(Mayfair)的倫敦地段，將其打造爲一個令人嚮往的居住區，其中心是格羅夫納廣場(Grosvenor Square)，如今是美國駐英大使館所在地。後來，家族的測繪師制定了倫敦貝爾格萊維亞(Belgravia)的開發規劃。
Gerald Grosvenor, born in 1951, only found out that he would inherit the estate when he was 15, after his father came into the title unexpectedly. He had early ambitions to be a professional footballer and then longed for a military career, an urge he satisfied through 42 years in the Territorial Army, which comprises part-time troops. He told an interviewer at The Independent newspaper in the 1990s that his youthful weakness had been cars: “I had an appalling series of high-speed car crashes.”
1951年出生的傑拉德•格羅夫納，只是到15歲時才知道自己將繼承格羅夫納地產，此前他父親意外得到這一地產。早年他的抱負是當一名職業足球運動員，之後他渴望踏上軍人生涯，於是他參加了由兼職軍人組成的英國本土自衛隊，服役42年，藉此滿足了這一衝動。他曾在上世紀90年代告訴《獨立報》(The Independent)的一名採訪者，他在年輕時代的弱點是飈車：“我遭遇了一連串可怕的高速車禍。”
But despite this — and although he managed to pass few exams at Harrow school — he showed a tendency to take the real estate business seriously, working in a central London property agency to learn about the market.
儘管如此，也儘管他在哈羅公學(Harrow School)沒有通過幾門課程的考試，但他表現出認真對待房地產生意的傾向，在倫敦市中心的一家地產代理機構工作，以瞭解市場。
The Grosvenor estate had already begun expanding internationally, with a development in Vancouver, by the time Gerald became involved in the 1950s as his father became ill. But at that time, he later said, the estate was “in bad shape”.
等到上世紀50年代父親患病、傑拉爾德開始參與家族生意時，格羅夫納地產已經開始國際擴張，在溫哥華有一個開發項目。但據他後來表示，那時家族地產處於“糟糕狀態”。
Today the group runs ￡13.1bn of assets — including those handled for third parties — and of its ￡6.7bn property portfolio, more than half is outside Britain and Ireland. It is active in 60 cities, employs 567 people and directly owns 1,550 properties, with a specialism in urban regeneration.
如今，格羅夫納地產集團執掌着131億英鎊的資產（包括爲第三方管理的資產），以及67億英鎊的房地產，其中一半以上位於英國和愛爾蘭以外。它活躍於60個城市，僱用567人，並直接擁有1550處房地產，專長是城區重建。
It has been credited with shrewd market calls, including stepping back from the luxury housing market in 2014 because of concerns over pricing; prices in that segment have been on the decline since.
集團被譽爲具備敏銳的市場悟性，包括在2014年由於擔憂價格而從豪華住宅市場後撤；自那以來該市場領域的價格一直在下降。
By that time, the sixth duke — who always left its day-to-day running to a series of chief executives — had taken a back seat, stepping down as chairman of its property business in 2007. He once said he would rather have been born as Joe Bloggs. “Given the choice, I would rather not have been born wealthy, but I never think of giving it up. I can’t sell. It doesn’t belong to me,” he said.
那時，始終把日常經營工作交給一個又一個首席執行官的第六代公爵，已經退下第一線，在2007年走下了家族房地產生意董事長的寶座。他有一次說，他寧願生來就是一個普通人。“如果可以選擇，我寧願不要出身豪門，但我從來沒有想到要放棄它。我沒法賣。它不屬於我，”他說。
But many in the industry credit him with the professionalisation of the group, which unlike other family offices has chosen to operate as a public brand and to regenerate already lucrative slices of real estate.
但業內很多人把集團的專業化歸功於他；與其他家族理財室不同，該集團選擇作爲一個公共品牌運營，並且敢於重建已經非常賺錢的房地產。
