The Clink Restaraunt - High Down Prison
Discussion
I had lunch at the Clink restaurant in High Down prison today. It was very good indeed and it exceeded my expectations even though I'd heard it was good, so I'm recommending it if you fancy going somewhere a little more unusual.
No porridge.
No birds.
It's open to the public Mon-Fri but you have to apply and book in advance and then go through the obvious security procedures. http://www.theclinkonline.com/
That's about the long and short of it.
And yes, it should be restaurant but I thought I'd get more attention if I inserted a deliberate spellling mistake in the title. Thanks.
No porridge.
No birds.
It's open to the public Mon-Fri but you have to apply and book in advance and then go through the obvious security procedures. http://www.theclinkonline.com/
That's about the long and short of it.
And yes, it should be restaurant but I thought I'd get more attention if I inserted a deliberate spellling mistake in the title. Thanks.
Edited by parakitaMol. on Tuesday 19th October 19:43
Yep, it was, it certainly challenges peoples thinking and perspective - lots of great discussion over lunch. I was taken by an ex Judge who is very passionate about prison not only being a place where people punished but a place that enables people to start working on changing themselves and their life.
The restaurant teaches real skills that can be used to secure gainful employment on release (and also benefits their families) - which I think is a good thing. Its not funded by the taxpayer and they also grow all the produce. And I'm not a comfortable shoe leftie yoghurt knitter!
I was impressed by the food and the service and also the concept. Which is why I'm recommending it - if you want to try something thats just a little bit different.
The restaurant teaches real skills that can be used to secure gainful employment on release (and also benefits their families) - which I think is a good thing. Its not funded by the taxpayer and they also grow all the produce. And I'm not a comfortable shoe leftie yoghurt knitter!
I was impressed by the food and the service and also the concept. Which is why I'm recommending it - if you want to try something thats just a little bit different.
Arese said:
Not sure I'd be happy knowing that a murderer/rapist had just cooked my dinner.
why not? they are serving their time and deserve to be given a clean slate after they come out of prison. and whats the % of the prison population which are murders and/or rapists- bet its not very high.
pugwash4x4 said:
Arese said:
Not sure I'd be happy knowing that a murderer/rapist had just cooked my dinner.
why not? they are serving their time and deserve to be given a clean slate after they come out of prison. and whats the % of the prison population which are murders and/or rapists- bet its not very high.
Call me narrow-minded or whatever you want, but it's just the way I feel.
High Down is a category B/C prison so likely to have murderers/rapists, but I wouldn't know in what proportions.
Arese said:
pugwash4x4 said:
Arese said:
Not sure I'd be happy knowing that a murderer/rapist had just cooked my dinner.
why not? they are serving their time and deserve to be given a clean slate after they come out of prison. and whats the % of the prison population which are murders and/or rapists- bet its not very high.
Call me narrow-minded or whatever you want, but it's just the way I feel.
High Down is a category B/C prison so likely to have murderers/rapists, but I wouldn't know in what proportions.
Like you I had similar thoughts and some reservations about going but went with an open mind and my view was changed somewhat by a very experiencd Judge who has seen all sorts of hideous crimes and pondlife come before him, who firmly believes that prison alone is not enough.
parakitaMol. said:
Arese said:
pugwash4x4 said:
Arese said:
Not sure I'd be happy knowing that a murderer/rapist had just cooked my dinner.
why not? they are serving their time and deserve to be given a clean slate after they come out of prison. and whats the % of the prison population which are murders and/or rapists- bet its not very high.
Call me narrow-minded or whatever you want, but it's just the way I feel.
High Down is a category B/C prison so likely to have murderers/rapists, but I wouldn't know in what proportions.
Like you I had similar thoughts and some reservations about going but went with an open mind and my view was changed somewhat by a very experiencd Judge who has seen all sorts of hideous crimes and pondlife come before him, who firmly believes that prison alone is not enough.
Certainly sounds & looks intriguing!
I think I would like to try - probably not as romantic meal for two, but maybe for a bit of challenging / thought provoking business lunch as PKM said.
...I'd have to ignore the devil on my shoulder that keeps painting me an image of Lindsay Lohan's prison porridge though.
I think I would like to try - probably not as romantic meal for two, but maybe for a bit of challenging / thought provoking business lunch as PKM said.
...I'd have to ignore the devil on my shoulder that keeps painting me an image of Lindsay Lohan's prison porridge though.
Early on in my 1st career, way before CSR was trendy, i did a stint on exchange with Leyhill prison, the "screws" worked at the Hotel i was at for a week and we worked in the prison kitchens for a week.
Enlightening to say the least, but i learnt so much from it.
Best part was preparing for the end of Ramadan feast, learnt how to make proper curries from one of the inmates along with true Naan's and Keema Naans with out a tandoor
Enlightening to say the least, but i learnt so much from it.
Best part was preparing for the end of Ramadan feast, learnt how to make proper curries from one of the inmates along with true Naan's and Keema Naans with out a tandoor
Arese said:
Because it's bad to kill or rape.
Thats what prisons for 
Arese said:
Call me narrow-minded or whatever you want, but it's just the way I feel.
You're narrow minded, HTH.As someone who benefitted from working in a prison, see earlier post, albeit for a small period of time, i think these initiatives are fantastic, especially as it generates revenue that covers off "some" of the costs it takes to cover most of those that are locked up, for whatever reason.
Perhaps you'd feel more comfortable if your lunch was cooked by crooked financiers, or 10PS who did time for a car accident.
That's an interesting one.
A mate's dad was recently in an open prison for a year and said they all would have done better by learning something in there, or being put to use for the community. This looks like a very good idea.
Christmas menu looks very good, and very reasonably priced too.
A mate's dad was recently in an open prison for a year and said they all would have done better by learning something in there, or being put to use for the community. This looks like a very good idea.
Christmas menu looks very good, and very reasonably priced too.
Edited by 5potTurbo on Thursday 21st October 15:16
Shaw Tarse said:
I'd be happy to eat there, as with a college training kitchen, the "chefs" will be supervised.
Closely supervised indeed, and it's quite hard to get approved for it, they don't allow any high risk prisoners, the kitchen is open to the dining area and we watched them preparing food and we were able to chat to the kitchen staff, as well as the waiters and also the Maitre D (an ex prisoner now on the paid staff) and we were free to ask them questions about what it meant to them. Another reason I changed my view, the chap I spoke to said he left school at 16 with no qualifications after his mum died and his stepfather kicked him out. He said this had shown him what real work was like and he liked the freindships he made in the kitchen, from the impression I got he was fully committed to getting the qualification.Hughesie said:
Prison kitchens are apparently one of the most sought after jobs on the inside, lots and lots of additional benefits to working in other parts of the nick.
And they clearly value the priviledge, the waiters and kitchen staff were very good, actually had better service than in some places where I have paid 4 times an equal quality meal served (which was very good indeed) and they obviously took a lot of pride what they were doing.
I'd be interested to hear if others think the same if they decide to go along - let me know!
Steamer said:
Hughesie said:
Prison kitchens are apparently one of the most sought after jobs on the inside, lots and lots of additional benefits to working in other parts of the nick.
Certainly worked out for Fletcher... or am I think of the episode when he got the Librarian's job.as for the posters making comments about murderers and rapists , wikipedia and the HMPS website tells us HighDown is a local prison and there is no reference to it having a sexual offenders unit or sexual offenders program, as a local prison it's unlikely to have many of the really long sentence and /or high risk prisons as they'll be in cat A or in the longer term / lifer nicks ....
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