12/09/2026
𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗹𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝗣𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲
04.09.2026
For a man who is in the Guinness Book of Records for selling the biggest life insurance policy in the world, Comedy Store founder Peter Rosengard might seem an unlikely campaigner for tolerance, education and understanding.
But in 2011, on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York City, Peter founded SINCE 9/11, a charity dedicated to educating young people about the consequences of the attacks and promoting tolerance and respect for all faiths and religions.
And it was a mission that began with a newspaper.
The idea came to him two years earlier, when he was reading the International Herald Tribune at London’s Claridge’s hotel, where he takes breakfast every morning.
Peter describes himself as “a news addict” and recalled being struck by a small front-page column in the paper in September 2009, shortly before the eighth anniversary of the attacks.
“It was a scoop by a guy from the New York Times called Michael Wilson,” he told me. “It changed my life.”
The article revealed the existence of Hangar 17 at JFK Airport, where thousands of pieces of steel recovered from Ground Zero had been stored.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had established a special project team to recover pieces of the World Trade Center from the enormous pile of rubble.
The scale of the destruction was almost impossible to comprehend.
Nearly 3,000 people had been murdered in the attacks and most families never recovered their loved ones’ remains.
The newspaper story revealed that some of the recovered steel was enormous — there were pieces measuring up to 100 feet long and weighing as much as 100 tons.
But what really caught Peter’s attention was what was going to happen to it.
He said: “Towns and cities across America could apply, through their mayor, through their municipality, to the Port Authority for a piece of World Trade Center steel.
“The article stated that one could also apply for the steel from abroad, and not just in America.
“I put the paper down and picked up the phone to call Boris.”
Boris Johnson was then Mayor of London at the time — but Peter barely knew him.
He had bumped into him at Lord’s cricket ground, but that was about it.
Peter sent him a message offering to obtain a piece of World Trade Center steel for London for the 10th anniversary.
A few hours later, his phone pinged with a message from Boris, which read “yes”, accompanied by three exclamation marks.
The timing, too, was extraordinary.
A week or so later, Peter met Daniel Ritterband, one of Boris’ senior aides, who explained where the-then Mayor had been when the message arrived — getting out of a limo with then-New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
For Peter, it was serendipity and it convinced him that the project was meant to happen.
Getting the steel, however, was another matter.
There were 2,000 pieces available and around 10,000 applications from American cities.
The person responsible for distributing the steel was Pete Miller, who told him that he’d had 10,000 applications from cities across America and that maybe Peter could visit the hangar in 18 months’ time.
Eventually, Peter decided that persistence — or what he described as chutzpa — would get him there.
In April 2010, he called Pete from a taxi on his way to Heathrow, where he told him that he would be catching a flight the following morning to JFK, and that he would be at the hangar at 10am NYC time.
The following morning, Peter entered Hangar 17 with his daughter Lily and artist Miya Ando, who would eventually transform the piece of steel into a public artwork.
From the beginning, Peter knew he wanted the project to be more than a conventional memorial.
He wanted it to honour the victims, but also to look forward.
Peter added: “I didn’t want to just do a memorial. I wanted it not only to honour the 2,977 innocent people who were murdered that day, but to symbolise a better, more peaceful future for the world.”
That vision became the Since 9/11 World Trade Center steel artwork, designed by Ando and unveiled at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London in 2015 by Johnson and then-American ambassador Matthew Barzun.
But Peter’s ambition did not end with a piece of steel.
Since 9/11 developed free educational resources for secondary schools in partnership with University College London’s Institute of Education.
It ran a national schools competition, taking winning pupils to New York to meet first responders, officials, family members and students, and it launched outreach workshops addressing radicalisation, extremism and terrorism.
It also introduced Survivor Stories, including the extraordinary testimony of British survivor Janice Brooks, who escaped from the 84th floor of the World Trade Center.
In 2018, the charity extended its work into primary schools, creating material for children aged seven to 11.
The need for that education has only become more pressing with time.
Peter pointed out that although people who lived through 9/11 remember exactly where they were, a huge proportion of today’s young people were not yet born.
“Everybody remembers exactly where they were, except 100 million Americans were not born yet,” he said.
“There are also around 20 million people in Britain who were also not alive when the attacks happened. They don’t know that the world changed.”
And the charity’s work has grown to encompass difficult conversations about extremism, conspiracy theories, racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism and misogyny, while promoting fundamental British values.
In 2020, its virtual student summit attracted 10,000 pupils from more than 300 schools, with speakers including historian Sir Simon Schama, who is now Since 9/11’s patron, former Lead Commissioner for Countering Extremism Sara Khan and Nicky Napier, whose husband, Alex, was murdered on that fateful day.
The following year, Since 9/11 released research undertaken with UCL Institute of Education which highlighted the urgent need for teachers to have better resources for addressing extremism in the classroom.
Such important work is a long way from Peter’s early life.
Born Peter Rose in Hammersmith, west London, he was raised in a Liberal Jewish home in East Acton.
His father, Jack, was from Glasgow and a compulsive gambler who was one of the first members of Gamblers Anonymous in the UK.
Peter originally studied at the Royal Dental Hospital — before that he was an encyclopedia salesman as his place was held over for him due to him failing his A-level physics exam.
But with 1960s London in full swing, he quit studying dentistry — but not before volunteering in Israel during the Six-Day War.
On his return to London, Peter landed a job as a DJ at a club which many au pairs frequented.
He headed to an island near Gothenburg, after falling in love with a Swedish au pair.
Peter was a dishwasher there before spending six months as a DJ in Stockholm.
“My grandfather, Mark Silverstone, kept writing to me to tell me to come home and become a solicitor or an accountant,” he explained.
“He then sent me a copy of the Evening Standard which contained an advert for a new insurance company. He told me to come home and become a life insurance salesman.”
Which is exactly what Peter did.
The Comedy Store tale began in 1978 in Los Angeles, where he was on holiday with then-wife Shirley.
Peter said: “We had nothing to do one night, so I asked the concierge and he recommended the Comedy Store.
“At the time there was no live comedy in the UK, apart from working men’s clubs up north, which was not really my scene.
“I loved what I saw in LA so decided to open one in London, despite everybody telling me I was nuts.”
Peter found the Nell Gwynne Club as his venue through somebody who knew owner Don Ward.
Explaining that he wanted to open a club like the one in LA, Ward said he could use his premises on a Saturday night.
But it was also a strip club with topless barmaids, which Peter had to explain when comedians came to audition.
He arguably helped launch the careers of Ben Elton, Keith Allen, Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson, Arnold Brown, and French and Saunders, who all started at the Comedy Store.
But the partnership turned sour in 1981, when he received a letter from Ward’s solicitor telling him his business relationship had been dissolved.
Peter, who reverted to the family’s original surname of Rosengard, went back into insurance, although he did open another comedy club called The Last Laugh.
Peter’s endeavours even saw him discover and manage 1980s pop band Curiosity Killed the Cat.
Next Friday (10.30am), to mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Since 9/11 will hold a special event at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
It will be hosted by journalist and broadcaster Adam Boulton, and will feature special guests.
More than two decades after the attacks, Peter believes remembering what happened is only part of the responsibility.
The greater challenge, however, is ensuring that a generation with no personal memory of 9/11 understands its significance — and learns from it.
Since911.com
