Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Oscar Wilde’s favorite bar and restaurant, the 143-year-old Cafe Royal in London, is to close its doors for good this weekend.

The historic venue is holding its last function on Dec. 21 after playing host to sex scandals, murder, and sporting achievement. The Crown Estate, which manages properties owned by Britain’s royal family, including the southern end of Regent Street, sold the building’s 125-year lease as part of the largest redevelopment of public space in the city’s West End.

Alrov Properties & Lodgings Ltd., an Israeli real-estate developer, is to turn the 24,000-square meter (258,000 square- foot) site into a 160-room, 5-star hotel. Other London hotels have made multimillion-pound refurbishments even as bookings slumped and economic recession reduced spending in restaurants.

“It’s very hard to describe because it just has a certain aura about it,” said Paul Boon, the operations director of the Cafe Royal. “London doesn’t have many banqueting houses left, which is why people hold us in such esteem.”

The venue was founded by a bankrupt French wine merchant in 1865 and became part of London’s high society from its heyday at the turn of the 19th century through to the 1960s, when it was run by Charles Forte, a U.K. hotel entrepreneur.

Winston Churchill, the U.K. Prime Minister, and actress Elizabeth Taylor were among customers. Graham Greene, the novelist, was a regular diner. The Grill Room has the U.K.’s “Grade One-listed” status, which protects landmark buildings from demolition or alteration.

The Empire and Napoleon suite has high ceilings and mirror panels. The original fittings including the radiator grills are also listed and will be preserved.

Wine Cellar

Bonhams auction house is to sell 120 items including Venetian chandeliers and a mahogany clock from the lobby on Jan. 20, 2009. The remaining contents from the wine cellar, which was once reputed to hold the finest collection of bottles in the world, are also for sale. The auction total may reach 200,000 pounds ($301,000), Bonhams said.

Some of the first boxing rules were first written down in the building by the National Sporting Club, which held black-tie dinners before fights. Bonhams is selling the full-size 1950s boxing ring for a guide price of 4,000 pounds to 6,000 pounds.

Intrigue and scandal dominated the Cafe Royal throughout the 19th century. In 1894 the night porter was found with two bullets in his head. The murder was never solved.

Wilde, a serious absinthe drinker, used to entertain his lover, Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas, at the restaurant.

Alcoholic Lunches

“Lunches were long and indulgent and expensive and alcoholic,” Neil McKenna, author of “The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde,” said in a telephone interview. “They were on a scale of luxury that is perhaps hard to comprehend these days.”

It was following an afternoon meeting at the Cafe Royal that Wilde in 1895 launched a libel trial against the Marquis of Queensbury, Douglas’s father, who had accused him of sodomy. The trial resulted in Wilde’s eventual imprisonment.

The Cafe Royal lost some of its glamour when it became a conference and meeting venue, part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.

“I’ve described it as a place where journalists and accountants could go for a cheap conference,” David Shaw, head of Regent Street development for the Crown Estate, said in an interview. The venue had been used as a nightclub and conference venue for three decades and “we don’t think that is appropriate,” he said.

Alrov’s redevelopment will follow the 100-million-pound refurbishment of the Savoy Hotel, owned by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, and the 23-million-pound transformation of Brown’s Hotel run by Rocco Forte, son of Charles Forte.

Paul Boon, the Cafe Royal operations director, said he’d received many calls from regulars and passersby.

“People have been saying that they will miss it being here,” he said. “Not because they attended every week or every month. They’d be walking up Regent Street and it was always there.”

To contact the writer on the story: Jonathan Browning in London jbrowning9@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 18, 2008 19:00 EST