Former Pentridge Prison inmate buys cell for cellar
November 2, 2007
By Maggie Rosen
A former inmate of Pentridge Prison in Melbourne, Australia has purchased his old cell, which is being converted into a wine cellar.
Graeme Alford – who used to be a barrister - served eight years in Pentridge for armed robbery and embezzlement. He was released in 1980, UK newspaper the Daily Telegraph reports.
Pentridge, which was in 1967 the site of the country's last hanging, closed in 1997. The grave of outlaw Ned Kelly also lies within its former walls. It is being reincarnated as a storage facility for rare wine valued at A$50m (£22m).
Alford, who became a motivational speaker and wrote the best-selling 'triumph over adversity' memoir Never Give Up in 2003, has in fact given up alcohol and gambling, both of which he was addicted to. He said he purchased the cell as an investment.
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If the English poet Richard Lovelace (1618-1658) had spent time as an ex-convict in Australia, a verse of his famous 1649 poem 'To Althea From Prison' might have taken this form:
Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage,
But here in Oz my cool cell of shiraz
Can now properly age.
Howard G Goldberg, New York City
Former Pentridge Prison inmate buys cell for cellar
You can't get 'cooler' than that.
Maggie Beale, Hong Kong
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If the English poet Richard Lovelace (1618-1658) had spent time as an ex-convict in Australia, a verse of his famous 1649 poem 'To Althea From Prison' might have taken this form:
