Sanctum Soho hotel kitchen 'shut down after mouse droppings mistaken for spices'

Inspection: Sanctum Soho Hotel near Carnaby Street
Google Street View
Taylor Geall7 July 2016

A boutique hotel visited by Harry Styles and Britney Spears had its kitchen shut down after inspectors found mouse droppings — which the chef thought were spices.

The chef became flummoxed when an inspector pointed out the droppings in the kitchen of Sanctum Soho Hotel near Carnaby Street, a court heard.

Inspectors who visited the four-star hotel in May last year also found droppings on food containers, food preparation areas and a muslin cloth used to strain soup and squeeze lemons for the bar. There was also a smell of mouse urine, Westminster magistrates’ court heard.

Sanctum London Limited and Concept Venue Limited, who run the hotel, admitted breaking food hygiene laws.

Prosecutor Benjamin Waidhofer said Westminster City Council environmental health officer Juliette Cooper temporarily shut down the hotel kitchen because of “an immediate risk to public health”.

“On the shelf of one of the food preparation tables, she saw droppings. She showed the chef and he said he thought they were spices,” said Mr Waidhofer.

The hotel continued to accommodate guests while its kitchen underwent a deep clean, which took six days. After the work was completed the kitchen has since reopened with new staff.

The hotel face sentencing at City of London magistrates’ court in September.

* An earlier version of this article suggested that the hotel itself had been closed following the visit by hygiene inspectors. In fact, the hotel remained open to guests and continued to serve food in areas of its restaurant that were not affected by the deep clean of the kitchen. The kitchen was closed for a total of six days. We are glad to clarify matters. 5/7/16

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in