For almost 100 years the small Cornish town of Bodmin’s most distinctive local landmark has been a ruined jail. Visible from many parts of the town, the prison features massive granite walls with an unusual ventilation chimney at the junction of its two wings.

Abandoned in 1927 and sold for demolition, attempts were made to blow it up for the stone,  but the one metre-thick walls proved too much for the explosives of the day. The roof was removed, though, and it has sat there gently crumbling ever since; festooned with ivy and colonised by bats and pigeons until a Russian entrepreneur was out for a walk six years ago, saw the building, fell in love and bought it.

Initially, Mallino Developments – who, depending on one’s point of view, were either brave or foolhardy – made the decision to buy the ruin and create a visitor attraction themed around the prison’s history. As this used only a small corner of the site, Mallino then decided to turn the former cells and administration rooms into a hotel.

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