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Oscar Wilde - a previous 'guest' of Bow Street Magistrates' Court |
Stylish slammer gets go-ahead
A NIGHT in the cells will soon become a luxury experience at Bow Street Magistrates’ Court now that its planned redevelopment into a luxury hotel has been given the green light by planning chiefs.
Guests will follow in the shackled footsteps of Oscar Wilde (pictured), the Kray twins and Casanova, sleeping in plush “cells” which are to be designed by celebrity hat maker, Philip Treacy.
The hotel will include an interactive museum detailing the building’s famous history and 16 sleepover cells with their original
glass-covered toilets.
Jo Weir, of the Covent Garden
Community Association said: “It is high time the court is turned into something decent instead of the forlorn site it is now.
“But it is a tragedy that the police decided to sell off this convenient site when some of our officers travel for miles to get into the city.”
The building was once home to novelist Henry Fielding, who set up a makeshift court there in 1747. Two years later he brought together eight constables to form the Bow Street Runners, the ancestors of the modern police force.
Although the building may not have changed, the cases tried over the years have.
Suffragette pioneers Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst were tried in Bow Street, and Oscar Wilde appeared there en route to his infamous trial at the Old Bailey.
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