John Mappin

John Mappin is a British businessman, hotelier, and political activist. He is the owner of Camelot Castle Hotel in Tintagel, Cornwall, which he purchased in 1999. A descendant of the founding family of the Mappin & Webb jewellery dynasty — though he inherited nothing from it, as the company passed out of family ownership in 1959, decades before his adulthood — he has been involved in far-right politics, serving as an early backer of Turning Point UK, and has been widely identified in the press as one of the UK's most prominent promoters of the QAnon conspiracy theory. In 2002, a High Court judge found him liable for fraudulent misrepresentation in a civil lawsuit brought by Benjamin Pell.

Early life and background John Mappin was educated at Winchester College from 1979 to 1983. He is a descendant of the family behind Mappin & Webb, the historic British jewellery and silverware firm founded in 1775, which held a Royal Warrant and served the British royal family. The company passed out of family ownership in 1959 when Sears Holdings acquired a controlling stake; it is today owned by the Watches of Switzerland Group.

In his mid-twenties, Mappin moved to Los Angeles, where he worked in the film and entertainment industry, specialising in story rights and distribution. During this period he spent six years studying Scientology.

Camelot Castle Hotel

Camelot Castle, Cornwall, UK - Reconstruction of King Arthur's Round Table - September 2010. Camelot Castle, Cornwall, UK - Exterior from the rear - September 2010. In February 1999, Mappin purchased Camelot Castle, a Victorian-era clifftop building in Tintagel, Cornwall, near the legendary site associated with King Arthur. He originally acquired it as a private residence. In 2001, he married Irina Kudrenok, originally from Kazakhstan, whom he had met in London. Together with artist Ted Stourton, the couple subsequently opened the property as a hotel. , the hotel offers accommodation and dining, including afternoon tea, and has been graded 4.4/5 by contributors to Tripadvisor.

The hotel operates an Artists in Residence programme, inviting artists to stay at no charge. Guests have reported receiving unsolicited Scientology literature in the post following their visits, and the hotel has been described in press accounts as a venue for Scientology promotion. One guest reported that two Scientology DVDs were sent to their eight-year-old daughter after a family stay.

In 2010, after the hotel had accumulated negative reviews on TripAdvisor, Mappin engaged an online reputation management firm and publicly claimed the critical reviews were part of a smear campaign by opponents of Scientology. TripAdvisor noted that a significant portion of reviews rated the hotel "terrible" and raised concerns about fake positive reviews.

In 2022, Mappin publicly stated he had declined a UK government contract to house asylum seekers at the hotel, which would have used all 65 rooms for approximately one year and was estimated to be worth around £1 million.

Political activities

Turning Point UK In December 2018, Mappin and his wife Irina hosted the launch event for Turning Point UK (TPUK) at the Royal Automobile Club in London. The story attracted national press coverage in January 2020. Hope not Hate described it as "a childish ploy" and "a weak attempt at getting attention." During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mappin circulated posts characterising the pandemic as "just a bad flu" and shared material raising alarms about the Pfizer vaccine.

Legal issues

Pell v Mappin (2002) In 2002, the High Court ruled against Mappin in a civil action brought by Benjamin Pell, known in the press as "Benji the Binman." Pell alleged that Mappin had induced him to pay £77,500 by falsely representing that a well-connected Hollywood producer was preparing a film about Pell's life. The supposed producer was in fact a hairdresser, Iain Jones, who had no filmmaking experience.

Personal life Mappin married Irina Kudrenok in Kazakhstan in 2001. She was born in 1979 in what is now Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, and studied economics and political science. The couple are co-owners of Camelot Castle Hotel.