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On 1st June MMVI Passing Clouds Works came into existence along the side of a disused train track on a back alley in Dalston. Passing Clouds is the brainchild of William Beaufroy, son of Lord Beaufroy, of the Beaufroy Miller Baxter stock broking company and Elizabeth Carter, heir to Carter Diamonds. William graduated from Oxford in PPE before travelling the world on a number of daring NGO projects, before going on to do two years at BMB Stock Broking, heading up the Emerging Markets portfolio, where he learnt a great deal about the political fluctuations and growing need for Western investment. The knowledge he gained stood him in good stead for his next role as brand relationship manager at top Soho marketing and PR consultancy company Cite! But it was whilst on an apprenticeship at the Carter diamond mine in the Congo that he developed a natural sympathy with the working man. Hence, on his return from Africa, William decided to shun the parental home in Knightsbridge and take on a bedsit of his own in Dalston, Hackney, East London, just a mile up from the City of London. He teamed up with Zac Jasper, son of Sir Adam Jasper, Chief Police Superintendent and a long-standing, Old Etonian friend of his to pioneer a unique art project, introducing local people to art and culture as well as bringing the otherwise sworn west-end crew to the east to experience what life is really like. Determined to go it alone financially, in May William secured a much needed sizeable Arts Council grant to help him realise this vision. And before they knew it, they had transformed a run down old print works into a spanking Hugo Lambert-designed arts club replete with state-of-the-art technology supplied by van-guarde brands such as Nike, Absolut Kurant, Playtex and Canon. Thanks to Will’s PR wizardry, every society paper was soon knocking at the clandestine back street door, hoping to steal a flash of celebrity revellers in their latest designer threads getting down and dirty to the indigenous music of ska and afrobeat. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ........................................................................................................................................ THE NAME PASSING CLOUDS came from a funny little episode when William was in the Congo. Coming out of a local shop, where he would occasionally purchase snake bite remedy as well as a secret indulgence of Thunnocks Tea Cakes, he saw an old blind man sitting with his dog at the side of the dirt track, smoking strange looking oval-shaped cigarettes from an even stranger looking packet entitled Passing Clouds. So intrigued was William, that he asked the man for a smoke and the old man naturally obliged. William found them a strange fit in the mouth, but at the same time a rich and satisfying flavour. ‘It just works!’ declared Will. Months later, William found he could not shake the occurrence from his mind and so from then on, Passing Clouds Works was born, best described as an oval peg in a round hole. If you would like to join this exciting venture, please send an email to we@passingclouds.org, stating your interest, what exactly it is that you do and who you do it for.

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