ONE of the most enduring landmarks in British legal history is set to be sold.

Gerry Barrett, an Irish property developer, is buying the Bow Street Magistrates Court and police station, near London’s Covent Garden and plans to convert it into a boutique hotel. The court has staged trials involving Oscar Wilde, Reggie Kray and General Augusto Pinochet.

Barrett declined to comment but it is thought he intends to build a chain of 15 hotels in Britain.

The court was put up for sale last year by its joint owners, the Greater London Magistrates Courts Authority and the Metropolitan Police Authority.

There has been a court at Bow Street since 1740, when Colonel Thomas De Veil sat as a magistrate in his home.

Later on, before the formation of a professional police force, the Bow Street Runners, a group of crime- fighting civilians, operated out of the court, helping to keep order until Sir Robert Peel established the Metropolitan Police in 1829.

Since moving to its current site, a Grade II-listed building, some time between 1879 and 1881, the Bow Street court has played host to some of the most memorable trials in British legal history.

If the sale goes to plan, the building will close in the summer of next year.

Barrett is based in Galway and is one of a number of Irish investors who are buying up assets in Britain and on the continent.