Old Holborn is dead
Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at 11:00 
One day I will make a list of my most bizarre work experiences.
Top of that list will almost certainly be the day I found myself standing outside Forest Bank prison in Salford waiting for the release of pub landlord Nick Hogan.
Nick had been jailed for six months for failing to pay a fine after allowing customers to smoke in his pub following the introduction of the smoking ban on July 1, 2007.
Nearby, with a silver attaché case containing over £9,000 in cash, stood a man in an all black outfit wearing a Guy Fawkes’ mask. His name was Robert Ambridge but to the world he was Old Holborn, a ‘satirical political blogger’.
Yesterday it was reported on social media that Ambridge had died on Saturday. The reaction, it has to be said, was one of rejoicing because since his blogging days his alter ego had become ‘one of the internet’s most notorious – and despised - individuals’ (Telegraph).
I didn’t follow him so I’m going to distance myself from his online persona because there are some things you can’t condone, even in the name of free speech.
All I will say is that, for the very short time I knew him, this ‘middle-aged, recruitment consultant and father-of-six’ did an outstanding job - with fellow blogger, the late Anna Raccoon - in getting prisoner DN5431 released from jail.
Without them Nick would have been in prison for considerably longer than the eleven days it took to raise the money, release the funds, pay the fine (in cash), and get him out.
You can read my version of the story here (‘Nick Hogan - free at last!’) and here (‘Nick Hogan - behind the scenes’).
See also: Bolton smoking ban landlord freed from jail’ (BBC News), ‘Jailed smoking ban martyr is freed by a mystery crusader's cash’ (Daily Mail), and ‘Landlord who defied smoking ban released from jail’ (Manchester Evening News).
That was in March 2010. The last time I saw Ambridge/OH was a few weeks later, in Cambridge, where he was standing for election under his nom de plume. He was canvassing for votes in Market Square, which is where I took the photo above, and I bumped into him while I was shopping.
Which reminds me, the only time I saw him without his mask was in the car park at Forest Bank prison before he changed into his alter ego’s all black attire.
What surprised me was how seriously he took the transformation but, to be honest, when you’ve seen a stocky middle-aged man struggling to squeeze into knee high leather boots in a prison car park, it’s hard not to laugh.
Our paths never crossed again so goodness knows what persuaded him to become ‘one of Britain’s most notorious internet trolls’ (Daily Mail).
I guess people are complicated. And social media facilitates their raw and unfiltered edges. I was lucky though to experience the best rather than the worst of Old Holborn so for that reason RIP.
PS. Also in Salford on that extraordinary day was Juliet Samuel, aka Emily Nomates, then a shy but intrepid reporter for Guido Fawkes’ Guy News. (I made a brief appearance in her report, below.)
Harvard-educated Juliet has gone on to work for City AM, The Times, the Wall Street Journal and, most recently, the Telegraph where she has been a columnist for several years.
Yesterday, by complete coincidence, it was reported by Guido that Juliet is returning to The Times in March to replace long-standing columnist (and former communist) David Aaronovitch.
Big loss for the Telegraph but good news (I think) for free market Times’ readers.
Reader Comments (6)
I will always respect OH because of the work he did with Anna to free Nick Hogan, after the shameful and tyrannical jail sentence imposed more as a warning to others to comply with an unpopular law than because of any henious crime to humanity.
It was more akin to a medieval burning of a heretic than a 21st progressive idea of so called "justice."
I am sorry to hear OH is dead. I think he liked to wind people up and I feel his trolling was just all a bad joke on his part.
I wouldn't call him a vile troll. The newspaper articles picked up on one thing which was his comments about Hillsborough. He was simply pointing out how entitled some people are, but a few tweets about one subject does not make someone a country's vilest troll.
The Daily Mail article you linked to seems to be rather uncecessarily snide in it's comments about him
What he did most, was just bait the left wing into ridiculous Twitter pile-ons, just by commenting on current affairs, exposing them for the nasty people they are
I did have a few snipes at him on Twitter during Covid, because the self styled, Twitters biggest Libertarian, went quite statist when it came to agreeing with Covid restrictions and vaxine mandates, but most of the time, his content has been very topical and funny
So sad to learn of Holby's passing.
There was much wisdom in his blog postings and Twitter account(s).
https://www.blogger.com/profile/10164491045068093627
Anna was Holby's agent for his attempt to become one of those he held in high contempt.
I too remember OH from those colourful old days of UK Libertarianism... we drank together at several London meetups.
Say what you like about him (and sadly, he did seem to go a bit mad during covid) but he stuck to his principles and he had more backbone that the entire Houses of Parliament out together.
He was great guy. RIP.
I shared digs with Bob years back. We used to have some right laughs, legend. I was 19, he was 42-43 maybe. The amount of pranking that used to go on was just brilliant.
He’d rock up to a meeting, open his laptop bag and a whole bunch of potato’s would spill out. You’re welcome Bob.
Or when he met his second wife, I’d hijack his MSN and talk nonsense to her. I liked our chats!
Darkest and wittiest of humour but was (/is) a gent, it’s hard to see that through a screen.
Hoping he’s not actually dead and that he just wanted an out from all his trolling and his well earned death threats!
Old Holborn was as fake as they come... in good way. In fact I'd put money on him being alive, kicking, and having a laugh in Romania with Andrew Tate.