Is the cell comfortable, sir? Bow Street court hotel gets go-ahead

A multi-million pound hotel development in Covent Garden which offers visitors the chance to spend the night in a former police cell has been approved.

The conversion of former Bow Street Magistrates' Court will enable tourists to sleep in a building that once housed prisoners including Casanova, Oscar Wilde, the Kray twins and Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst and also saw Pete Doherty in the dock.

The court will be transformed into a 76-bedroom hotel with a museum and 16 additional "sleepover cells".

These rooms will allow visitors to recreate their own night in the nick albeit on a top-quality mattress.

The basic lavatory will be there, but covered by a glass box better conveniences will be available elsewhere and breakfast will be provided by room service instead of a police officer.

Historic images will be projected onto the walls of the hotel, the interior of which will be designed by milliner Philip Treacy. The museum will have interactive displays telling the stories of Bow Street and the criminals and police associated with the court.

Irish development company Edward Holdings, which bought the building for about £25million in 2006, hope it will take its place alongside other "criminal attractions" like the London Dungeon and the Tower of London.

Robert Davis, deputy leader of Westminster council, said: "The museum and hotel will provide a fitting public tribute to this famous landmark where the police force as we know it originated.

"The museum and hotel provide a fantastic opportunity to redevelop this currently disused site and will further enhance the historical character and atmosphere of Covent Garden."

In the mid-18th century the grade II-listed building was the home of Tom Jones author Henry Fielding.

Its new use is part of a hotel building boom which will see 1,500 rooms added to the West End despite the credit crunch. The same Westminster planning meeting that approved the Bow Street scheme also granted permission for the Metropole buildings in Northumberland Avenue, off Trafalgar Square, to be converted into a 297-bedroom six-star hotel.

Also given the go-ahead was a four-star, 245-room hotel and five restaurants off Leicester Square.Other hotel plans in Westminster include the former Swiss Centre in Leicester Square, the former Playboy club and casino at 45 Park Lane, the Café Royal, and floors of the Trocadero Centre.

"We're experiencing a surge of applications for major new hotels," said Mr Davis.

"With the International Olympic Committee staying in Westminster, we expect that many of the events' visitors will want to stay here."