After shifts with the very visible Security Team and the
high-profile Grounds and Gardens Team, Jenny Montefiore spends time with Hurlingham’s unseen heroes

Two days after a very busy weekend – the culmination of the Club’s annual summer events – I am with Club photographer, Isobel McTear, in the Maintenance team’s behind-the-scenes base, to meet Alin Serbin, Head of Maintenance and his deputy, Head of Buildings, Nathan Totton. They run an incredibly tight ship, with a much smaller team than you would expect of somewhere the size of Hurlingham, with only nine staff. They are both very modest about the scale and expertise of the team’s work and accomplishments.

Before coming to Hurlingham, Alin managed the Facilities at St Paul’s Boys School. It is a testament to him that half of our current top-notch team followed him from there. He manages huge budgets and ensures the Club gets high-quality work at good prices. This includes energy initiatives and lighting. He also works closely with Head of Grounds and Gardens, Neil Harvey, and together they create two strong management arms for the Estates Team, reporting to Louise Collins, Director of Estates.

Nathan, a plumber by trade, provides hands-on help with various tasks, as well as carrying out supervisory duties. Every morning, he briefs the team, allocates jobs for the day and checks the Building Management System (BMS) to make sure everything from lighting to air conditioning is working properly. He deals with day-to-day emails and attends meetings about planned and preventative maintenance. There are always reactive jobs, small to medium-sized refurbishment projects, as well as emergency calls to deal with.

They both work collaboratively with Gardens and Landscape, the Interior Design and Heritage Committees, including refurbishments of the Clubhouse rooms. Maintenance, like the Grounds team, supports all events and staff often stay on late to make sure everything runs smoothly. The team also takes excellent care of the tenants in the Club’s cottages – staff onsite and private alike.

Without them Hurlingham couldn’t open the gates, doors, kitchens, pools and keep the Club compliant and safe every day

The delivery of the Masterplan has been their focus, in collaboration with both internal and external project teams. In 2025, Estates aim to concentrate on sustainable plans to run our power and energy-saving projects, via BMS management and improvements.

In the Management office, which he shares with Alin and the ‘Queen of Maintenance’, Administrator, Andrea Kovacikova, Nathan attempts to explain the technology that makes the team’s work efficient and internal communications effective. The recently installed Computer Aided Facility Management (CAFM) System has many advantages, including a helpdesk and logging tickets – very easy to do via an app accessible to all Hurlingham staff. It can also create weekly/monthly reports, which prevent job duplications and it benefits from a Service Level agreement to prioritise jobs. It monitors machines and equipment and receives alerts when they are not functioning properly with maps and layouts of all areas. My comprehension is limited, so I am pleased to set off with Nathan, on a tour of the team’s most recent projects.

The Sauna in the Fitness Centre is in use, and we are not suitably attired to look at the new benches there, so we head off to the Outdoor Pool to see the major refurbishment. I have already enjoyed the repaired and newly re-tiled pool on sunny days, appreciated the new anti-slip tiles in the changing room, and the re-painted external areas. The children’s pool re-tiling and the refurbishment of the bench have now also been completed. We finish with my first-ever visit to one of the Club’s six Plant Rooms, here in a large hot basement. It’s full of pumps, machines, pressure monitors and boilers of various sizes. An alert goes off on the Barons System, which monitors the temperatures of the pools, the hot tub and chlorine levels – it’s nothing dangerous, only a faulty probe reading. The alert has gone to the Maintenance team via the BMS, but Nathan deals with it quickly, contacting Chris, from the Swimming and Fitness team to rectify the situation.

Two weeks later I am back to chat with the rest of the team, at the end of their weekly meeting. All of them are involved with the planned annual maintenance in the Fitness Centre while it is closed. This morning Stacy Burden and Djaafar Chelli, whose son Adlane Chelli is also on the team, have been dealing with the Outdoor Pool’s water pressure in the hot weather, and Mike Dickman is now back on the ground after fixing pipe valves on the Clubhouse roof. Their core hours are 7am-4pm, with an engineer always on a 24/7 call-out rota per week. They are allocated jobs via their mobile devices, and then carry out Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPMs) and reactive tasks. Once finished they go to the office to report completion. They are also on hand to help members fix heels, pump up tyres and mend croquet mallets!

I finally get an excuse to put on a high-vis vest and hard hat. However, it’s just for show as I do not have the necessary site inductions to go inside the East Wing where the contractors are working. So, Brian Mathews, the longest serving member of the team, takes me past the barrier in the Four-In-Hand Yard into the largest of the Club’s Plant Rooms servicing the East Wing. There is a fascinating array of machines and panels, which are constantly monitored, tested, refurbished and replaced, when necessary, as the electricity panels will be by the Masterplan contractors. With more than 20 years of experience and knowledge at Hurlingham, Brian is the perfect guide to explain operations for each of the locations in the East Wing, their functions including air flow fed with information from sensors in the building, lighting, and providing electricity for everything from cash tills to fridges as well as the safety features.

The whole team agrees that the Club, Grounds and staff make for a great working environment and feel fortunate to work within this unique and beautiful oasis near the heart of London. We are fortunate to have them – as Louise Collins, Director of Estates, says ‘they are the unseen heroes; without them Hurlingham couldn’t open the gates, doors, kitchens, pools and keep the Club compliant and safe every day’.

JENNY MONTEFIORE