Forty-seven Mercer Street is a narrow building between a tobacconist and a button shop, two streets east of Arundel Crescent. The ground floor houses Canford & Sons, a small commercial printing firm that has occupied the premises since 1974. The first floor, reached by a staircase at the rear, consists of a single room measuring approximately twelve feet by fourteen. It has one window, overlooking the alley. The rent is thirty-two florins a month.

It was here, according to records obtained by the Metropolitan Constabulary, that Southgate Safety Consultants Ltd maintained its registered office from March 2022 until its lease expired on 31 December 2025.

The Constabulary’s interest in the firm dates to Thursday, when Vincent Drury — sole director of Greystone Shipping & Haulage, owner of the Old Harbour Road warehouse where falsified fire safety certificates were discovered during the Docklands audit — told investigators that the certificates in question had been obtained through “a qualified compliance consultancy.” He declined to name the firm during his three-hour-and-fifteen-minute interview, on the advice of his solicitor, Elise Braddock of Doncaster & Braddock.

By Friday evening, investigators had identified the firm. By Saturday morning, they had visited its premises. What they found was, in the most literal sense, nothing.

An Empty Room

Douglas Canford, proprietor of the printing firm below, told this newspaper that he had rented the upstairs room to a man “in a grey suit” who paid quarterly, in cash, and was seen on the premises “perhaps six or seven times in total” over nearly three years.

“He never had any equipment up there that I could see,” said Canford, 64. “No filing system, no typewriter, no telephone line. I assumed he used it for storage, but there was never anything to store. Quiet tenant. Paid on time.”

The room currently contains a desk, a wooden chair, and a filing cabinet. The cabinet is empty. There is no nameplate on the door, no letterhead, no company records, and no evidence that any fire safety inspections were ever conducted from the premises.

Southgate Safety Consultants Ltd was incorporated on 14 March 2022 at the Companies Registry in Caldwell. It lists a single director — a name that the Constabulary has confirmed is known to them but has not yet been made public. The company’s annual filings, which this newspaper has reviewed, declare no revenue, no employees, and no business activity. Its stated purpose, according to the articles of incorporation, is “the provision of safety compliance services to commercial and industrial clients.”

The Handwriting Connection

The significance of Southgate extends well beyond a single office lease. The three falsified fire safety certificates discovered during the Docklands audit — at warehouses on Chandler’s Row, Pilot’s Alley, and Old Harbour Road — have all been linked by handwriting analysis to a single individual. All three certificates bear the forged signatures of fire inspectors, including retired Inspector Raymond Duxbury, who told this newspaper last week that he had “never set foot” in the Old Harbour Road building.

If the certificates were issued by Southgate, as Drury’s interview implies, then the firm’s sole director would be a person of immediate interest to the Constabulary. The fact that the firm has no employees, no inspection records, and no evidence of having conducted any compliance work raises obvious questions about its true purpose.

Senior Inspector Callum Frye, who leads the Greystone Wharf investigation, confirmed on Saturday that the Constabulary is “pursuing inquiries related to a commercial entity connected to the fire certificate investigation.” He declined to name the firm or its director.

The Ashcroft Thread

The connection between Greystone Shipping & Haulage and the Ashcroft Property Group — which this newspaper first reported on Wednesday — adds another dimension. Greystone Shipping shared a registered address with an Ashcroft subsidiary at 19 Lower Harbourfront Parade in 2020, the year after Greystone’s incorporation. Ashcroft’s solicitor, Edmond Crayle, has previously declined to comment on the connection.

Whether Southgate Safety Consultants has any link to either Ashcroft or Greystone beyond the Drury interview is not yet known. But the Constabulary’s investigation, which began with a warehouse fire on 13 February and has since expanded to encompass falsified certificates, forged signatures, and now a compliance firm that appears to have existed only on paper, shows no sign of narrowing.

Drury remains at liberty. He has not been charged. Braddock, his solicitor, issued a brief statement on Saturday: “Mr Drury cooperated fully with the Constabulary and will continue to do so. He has no comment on press speculation regarding third parties.”

At 47 Mercer Street, the empty room above the printshop has been sealed by the Constabulary. A notice on the door reads: “Premises subject to investigation — entry prohibited.” Douglas Canford was asked whether he was surprised.

“A bit,” he said. “But mostly that anybody was interested in a room with nothing in it.”