A Tale Of One City And Two Henry Smiths

London Centric will be back in its normal form next week – please do send in any stories you think we should be investigating. But for now, as we enter a new year, we bring you something a little different as a one-off.

This is a story that spans 450 years, based on historical documents, court judgments, and original on-the-ground reporting about two Londons, past and present, inhabited by two Londoners called Henry Smith.

London, 2026

Henry Smith is a London landlord and sometime money lender. Through a series of canny land deals he has built a great fortune, surfing a wave of change in the capital to his personal benefit.

For decades he has worked hard to build up his business from a base on the northern fringes of the City of London, surviving the tumult of the great financial crisis to thrive. A natural deal maker, he recognises that bold gambles on buying land are what underpin many of the capital’s greatest fortunes. He is involved in high-profile philanthropic endeavours, and he’s not afraid to put himself and his name at the heart of them.

The details of the 63-year-old’s business interests are well documented, sometimes to his annoyance. In addition to the property developments across London there’s the collapsed payday loans company, a mass eviction of his tenants last Christmas, and now, London Centric can reveal, the potential unlawful operation of a student housing project in Deptford.

What’s more, we have learned many of the people he evicted 12 months ago have hit back and won multiple victories — receiving substantial payouts from Smith’s company after it failed to correctly protect their deposits or licence their homes with the local council.

His is a very London story.

London, 1627

Henry Smith was a London landlord and money lender. Through a series of canny land deals over several decades he built a great fortune, surfing a wave of change in the capital during the Jacobean and Elizabethan eras to substantial personal benefit – with his actions suggesting a deep concern for his legacy and public profile.

For decades he worked hard to build up his business, from a base on the northern fringes of the City of London, surviving the religious