Opened in 2014, The Clink in Styal was the fourth restaurant opened by The Clink Charity, a genuinely groundbreaking organisation which opens restaurants within the walls of working prisons, entirely staffed by inmates, and completely open to the public to attend.
Sadly, The Clink at HMP Styal is set to close this year, after having been open for a decade, but we’re lucky to have experienced it while it was in operation.
Located in the former chapel of HMP Styal women’s prison – at one time an orphanage – The Clink has tall stained glass windows, impossibly high beamed ceilings and parquet floors. It rivals some of the prettiest dining spaces in the city, or the cosy gastropubs of the surrounding Cheshire countryside.
Managed by Gail Gardener-Harding, who didn’t previously work within the criminal justice system, the idea of the restaurant is to allow students in custody to learn hospitality skills, with the aim to find jobs and build a new life at the end of their sentence. In the kitchen, there are a couple of professional chefs who provide the training, but other than that, the place is staffed by women who are incarcerated and most will come away with an NVQ in Hospitality and Catering.
And while everyone here is learning, that doesn’t mean the standard of service, or of the food itself, is anything less than great. The only hint that anything about the place is less-than-normal is a tiny placard on each table politely asking diners not to photograph the workers. Oh, and you can’t order anything alcoholic, for obvious reasons. Though there’s an abundance of alcohol free beers and cocktails.
The menu is full of bistro classics, like haddock with leek and potato velouté and roast onion tarte tatin, designed to ensure the students gain the whole gamut of culinary skills needed for a career in hospitality, from saucing to pastry. Students are encouraged to be creative too, which means diners can also enjoy dishes like focaccia with smoked bacon butter, seabass with curried cauliflower and pork fillet with black pudding bon bons. Desserts include a peanut butter cheesecake and a baked alaska. They are really delicious dishes, easily as good as any ‘normal’ restaurant. You can’t knock the price-point either, with brunch dishes costing around £10 each, while on a Sunday you can get three courses for under £35.
This isn’t just a great place to eat for a prison, it’s simply a great place to eat. But does it work, as a scheme? In short, yes. The Clink Charity as a whole has some of the lowest re-offending rates in the UK.
We hope that the imminent closure of this iteration of The Clink doesn’t mean the end of genuinely transformative programmes like this.
