What's happening with plans for historic jail?

It has been two years since a historic jail, which once held Irish writer Oscar Wilde, was sold to a Chinese businessman.

If Reading Prison's most famous inmate were alive today, he might be struck by just how little has changed since he was led to his cold, dank cell in 1895.

New owner Channing Bi, who founded the Ziran Educational Foundation, said in 2024 he hoped to turn the site into a hotel, museum and art gallery - with the work completed in two years, if the council grants permission.

While there is no sign of a formal planning application for the project yet, the foundation said it wants to reassure people that "progress is actively under way".

Behind the building's austere red brick walls, the leaking roof has now been repaired to protect it from the extremes of another English winter, according to Matt Rodda.

The Reading Central MP said while he would like to see more rapid progress, he remains optimistic the foundation will soon have some initial plans to share with the Berkshire town.

He told the BBC that one of the main sticking points over the past year has been on the architectural front.

"The original architect was based in Italy and, while that Italian architect had some wonderful ideas, obviously there are some practical issues with the existing site," he said.

"What I understand is that there's a competition going on to find another architect and, apparently, at that point we've been told there'll be some plans we can look at."

The Ziran Educational Foundation said it was "continuing to work through the necessary procedures and will gladly provide updates as milestones are reached".

Some areas of the prison are Grade II listed and Mr Bi told the BBC in October 2024 that he estimated the project could cost about £100m.

No matter what plans are finally put out for the wider public to see, the prison will forever be linked to one of the most celebrated writers of the 19th Century.

Wilde spent two years at the jail after being convicted of gross indecency - effectively for being gay.

After he was released in May 1897, he spent the last three years of his life in exile in France, where he composed his final work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, describing an execution at the prison.

It is this history and the fact that the jail sits smack bang in the middle of Reading that makes it such an important landmark.

Mr Rodda said: "It's such a powerful building. It's quite sombre because of the history of Oscar Wilde and how appallingly he was treated but also it has this strange kind of beauty and a strange kind of power, which - if used in the right way - could be a powerful force for good."

For now, Wilde's cell remains empty, as does the rest of the building, which took on its current form in 1844, half a century before the writer passed through its gates.

They say time passes slowly behind bars.

It seems time passes equally slowly when you are trying to transform a Victorian jail into something fit for the 21st Century.