Robert Davis

Davis was a director/trustee of the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park from 1986 to 2019 and Chairman of the Board between 2009 and 2019 during which the theatre won several Olivier and other theatre awards.

Together with his colleague Councillor the Lady Flight and other colleagues he founded the Sir Simon Milton Foundation - a registered charity which was established after the death of Davis’s partner Sir Simon Milton (lately Leader of Westminster Council,  Chairman of the Local Government Association and Deputy Mayor of London and Chief of Staff to Boris Johnston when Mayor of London until his death in 2011).   The purpose of the charity was to continue to support Simon’s priorities to address loneliness and isolation among older persons and to support young people into work through supporting their educational needs.  The Foundation now runs Silver Sunday - a day in October to support older people in meeting others by attending one of over 1,200 events throughout the country.  The Foundation has also sponsored the establishment of the Sir Simon Milton Westminster University Technical College in Pimlico and has distributed a number of bursaries and grants to students in financial need to attend university including Davis and Milton’s own Cambridge College, Gonvile & Caius.  Davis is currently Deputy Chairman of the Foundation.

Davis has been the International Goodwill Ambassador of the London New Year’s Day Parade since 1998 and between 2003 and 2018 organised the Westminster Council entry in the Parade wining the best Borough entry seven times.

Davis served on the Board of the New West End Company (the Business Improvement District for Oxford Street, Regent’s Street and Bond Street) between 2000 and 2011 and between 2017 and 2018.

In March 2018, following criticism of "the large scale of gifts and hospitality" received by Davis from property developers, he resigned as Deputy Leader and as a Cabinet Member to allow an internal independent inquiry to investigate the issues at his own request. He subsequently resigned from the Council in October 2018.

On 7 March 2018, Davis stood down as deputy leader and as a cabinet member after The Guardian reported into how he had received hospitality and gifts over 500 times between 2012 and 2017, much of it from property developers.

The independent investigation, reported in October 2018, found that Davis had "breached the code of conduct" and that his "acceptance of gifts and hospitality from developers before or after a planning decision may … have placed him in a position in which people might seek to influence him in the performance of his duties." Although the Report found no evidence that he was so influenced.

In 2017 Davis had the idea of a temporary theatre at Marble Arch and co-produced the musical "Five Guys Named Moe" at the theatre with Underbelly.

Davis chaired the Westminster World Heritage Site Board between 2015 and 2018.

Davis is a Deputy Lieutenant for Greater London. In 2015, he was awarded an MBE for services to local government and planning.

As Chairman of the Council's principal Planning Committee he was instrumental in persuading the developers of a site in Victoria to include a theatre in their development – now the "Other Palace" and in persuading Derwent London to build a new 650 seat theatre in Charing Cross Road (now under construction and due for completion in 2022 and currently known as the "Nimax").

His long-term partner (until his death in 2011) was Sir Simon Milton, who had been leader of Westminster City Council and Deputy Mayor of London to Boris Johnson. In 2007, they entered into a civil partnership at London's Ritz Hotel.

Davis was deputy leader of Westminster City Council from May 2008 until March 2018. He served as Cabinet Member for the Built Environment (planning; major infrastructure projects and special events) from 2002 to 2017 and Chaired the Councils principal Planning Committee for seventeen years (2000 to 2017). He also served as Cabinet Member for Business, Culture and Heritage between January 2017 and March 2018.

In 2007 Davis helped establish the Westminster Guide Lecturers Association which awards authorised green badges to tour guides expert in the history of the City of Westminster who have passed an exam.  Davis was its first Honorary President between 2007 and 2017.

Davis created "West End Live" in 2005 which has become an annual theatrical event taking place originally in Leicester Square but now in Trafalgar Square each June and comprises fully costumed extracts from all the West End musicals. Davis produced the event and raised all the monies necessary to put it on until he retired as Cabinet Member in 2018.

Between 2003 and 2018 he served on a rota basis as one of a number of Lord Mayor Locum Tenens (deputising for the Lord Mayor).

Between 1997 and 2016 Davis chaired the London Mayors’ Association which is an association of the current and former mayors of the 33 London Boroughs and which was originally founded in 1901. Davis turned the then moribund Association into a very successful and highly recognised organisation.

From 1996 to 1997, he was the then youngest Lord Mayor of Westminster. During his year of office he participated in a number of events with Nelson Mandela during his State visit to the UK in July 1996.

From 1985 to 2015, Davis was a partner (now a consultant) in solicitors' firm Freeman Box, Bentinck Street, Marylebone, London, and he specialised in property law.

He was educated at Christ's College, Finchley, followed by Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and Wolfson College, Cambridge, after which he trained as a solicitor at the College of Law in London's Lancaster Gate. He was admitted as a solicitor in October 1983.

In 1982, Davis was first elected to Westminster City Council, and at the time of his resignation was its longest currently serving Councillor, with a tenure lasting over 36 years. He was also the longest-serving Westminster councillor since the borough's formation in 1965. Davis was initially elected for the Bayswater ward, before representing Lancaster Gate from 1986 onwards.

Robert Jonathan Davis MBE DL (born 27 September 1957) is a British lawyer and Conservative Party politician. He was deputy leader of the Westminster City Council, and chairman of its planning committee for 17 years. He served as Lord Mayor of Westminster 1996-1997 and also chaired the London Mayors' Association between 1998 and 2016.

Robert Davis was born on 27 September 1957. He is the son of Gerald Davis (died 2000) and Pamela Davis née Lee (died 1997).