Martin Webb (born 1964) is a British-born entrepreneur, television presenter and currently a property developer He presented the series ''Risking It All'' aired on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

in 2005. He wrote regular articles for the business supplement of the

Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, first published on 5 February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegr ...

Early life

Webb was born at

Westminster Hospital Westminster Hospital was a hospital in London, England, founded in 1719. In 1834 a medical school attached to the hospital was formally founded. In 1939 a newly built hospital and medical school opened in Horseferry Road, Westminster. In 1994 the ...

and attended Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the River Ribble, Ribble Valley, east of Preston ...

, Lancashire. He went on to study at

Brighton Polytechnic The University of Brighton is a public university based in Brighton on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achieved university status in 1992. Th ...

. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in law by

Brighton University The University of Brighton is a public university based in Brighton on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achieved university status in 1992. Th ...

in 2008.

Business

Prior to his business success he very briefly joined both the Royal Navy and then the Metropolitan police. In 2004, Webb set up Britain's first charity pub. The profits from The Robin Hood pub in

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

go to local charities. Webb co-founded the C-Side Leisure group with, the former

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

MP for Brighton Kemptown,

Simon Kirby Simon Gerard Kirby (born 22 December 1964), also known as Simon Radford-Kirby, is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brighton Kemptown in 2010. In 2016, he was appoin ...

, whose portfolio grew to include many pubs, clubs and restaurants in and around Brighton. Webb himself is a Labour supporter. His first venture was a design company, , founded with business partner Simon Kirby, but it went bust within three years. Other ventures have included Dekoart, a web-based fine art digital printing company, and another pub company, Medicine Group, which had sites in Islington and the ever-fashionable Shoreditch in London. On 3 September 2016, he shut down The Dyke Pub and the following day reopened it as a second-hand furniture shop. This was done as permitted development, a planning loophole which allows owners to change the use of a business from A4 to A1 without the need to submit a planning application. Webb plans to reopen the Dyke as a smaller bar in the darker half of the building, whilst developing private accommodation above and in the garden.

Notes

Living people 1970 births 21st-century British businesspeople Alumni of the University of Brighton Businesspeople from Sussex People educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn {{UK-business-bio-1970s-stub