Bunhill: Meriting a meal ticket

ONE OF the few seriously rich to have had a good recession so far is Lord Rayne, founder of London Merchant Securities. The brother-in-law of Sir James Goldsmith, Lord Rayne saw his fortune rise from pounds 75m to pounds 93m last year. A specialist in developing unfashionable property sites - he was the first to spot the potential of the Angel, Islington - he was celebrating in a quiet backwater off Clapham Common on Thursday evening.

The occasion, though, was not yet another leap in his riches nor another completed development, but the opening of Flumbs, a restaurant owned by his grandson, Tony Rhodes. As befits a man who moved into property after wartime service in the RAF, Lord Rayne expects his family to stand on their own two feet: not a penny of the cost of the smart eaterie came from his lordship.

As for the curious choice of name, Mr Rhodes's constant shouting of the word 'mum' as a boy so annoyed his parents that he was told to come up with something a bit more decorous, so he chose 'fabulous mum' and abbreviated it to 'flumb'.