Scotland Yard police station converted into £10,000 per night luxury hotel

London’s Scotland Yard police station, site of the original Jack the Ripper investigations, is to be converted into a £10,000 per night luxury hotel in a £110 million deal involving UK property developer Galliard and the Dubai-based LuLu group.

The historical buildings, once the venue for some of the country’s most notorious investigations, will be turned into a five star hotel.

The Yard will undergo a £50 million (US$77.9 million) refurbishment and will employ up to 250 staff when it opens in 2017.

The cells and meeting room once used by early generations of London coppers – still known as ‘Bobbys’ and ‘Peelers’ after the force’s founder Sir Robert Peel – will contain two bars, a library, luxury rooms and dining facilities.

It will be operated by the Steigenberger Hotel Group.

“The Great Scotland Yard Hotel will be a brand synonymous with exceptional service and refined luxury and quality,” Galliard Director Don O’Sullivan told the Guardian.

Between 1829 and 1890 it was the Metropolitan Police’s headquarters and regularly appeared in Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘Sherlock Holmes’ novels.

It also served as the base of the original 1888 investigation into the Ripper murders in London’s East End and later as the headquarters of the Royal Military Police for a time.

It is reputed to have been the place where Lord Kitchener made his famous “Your Country Needs You” statement in an effort to recruit soldiers in the run up to the First World War before being used as a Library by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The LuLu group is headed by Middle East-based businessman Yusuffali Kader who, with an estimated fortune of $2.5 billion, is one of India’s richest men.