IRA jail to be a luxury hotel?
The Crumlin Road Courthouse in Belfast, infamous for seeing hundreds of IRA members jailed, could soon be reopened as a luxury hotel. Developer Barry Gilligan is seeking planning permission for a £25m refurbishment project to revamp the building, which was closed in 1998 after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. Under the plans, the hotel would retain most of the original building's features, including the two main courtrooms and an underground tunnel linking one of the docks to a former jail across the road. It would comprise 161 bedrooms and provide lecture and seminar facilities, as well as a private cinema.
Johnson buys Patisserie Valerie
Luke Johnson, chairman of Channel 4, has bought a majority stake in upmarket French café chain Patisserie Valerie. Johnson, who is understood to have acquired about 80% of the chain, plans to take the £8m business national. Current owners Victor and Robert Scalzo will retain minority stakes.
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Craft Guild of Chefs success
A record number of entrants achieved graduate status in this year's Craft Guild of Chefs Graduate Awards. Five successful candidates were presented with their awards by the organisation's patron, the Countess of Wessex, at a lunch at the Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington last week. Sophie Wright from Westminster Kingsway College emerged as Graduate Top Achiever with the highest mark overall (89%).
