Marco Pierre White pulls out of Oak Room

Restaurateur Marco Pierre White is pulling out of The Oak Room restaurant at the five-star, 267-bedroom Le Méridien Piccadilly hotel in London.

He is also pulling out of the Titanic restaurant, but is taking over full ownership of The Criterion.

White's spokesman, Alan Crompton-Batt, said White had decided to close the restaurants because he had had enough of the hotels in which they sat constantly changing hands.

He said the decision was not a financial one and that the group of restaurants was not losing

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	White: Closes door on Oak Room

money. Crompton-Batt said the Oak Room would close on 15 February with Titanic following suit by the end of March. White will assume sole control of The Criterion over the next few weeks, he said. A spokesman for Le Méridien said the decision to dissolve MPW Criterion was an amicable one, and meant that it could focus more on its Terrace restaurant at the Piccadilly hotel. He said Le Méridien was "considering a number of alternative uses for The Oak Room" but had not yet decided whether to reopen it as a restaurant.