Luxury living? I should Cocoa

IT'S a little-known fact that Roald Dahl was a schoolboy chocolate tester and was inspired to write his Charlie and the Chocolate Factory novels by the rivalry between Britain's biggest prewar confectioners, Cadbury and Rowntree.

- By Deborah Stone

It's even possible he visited the Rowntree headquarters, at least that's been suggested by developers Latimer, which has converted the York factory into 279 apartments.

Not that the building really needs a Dahl connection to make it a fascinating story, thanks to Victorian philanthropist Joseph Rowntree's vision of creating a business where workers were fed in the company canteen, given easy access to a doctor and provided with educational and recreational facilities. It even had a glass house for growing cocoa, vanilla and sugar cane.

Rowntree also built housing that workers could afford and although the luxury apartments now for sale at The Cocoa Works don't fit that description, the developers are part of Clarion Housing Group, which reinvests its profits into affordable homes.