Ramsay buys fourth pub

Top chef Gordon Ramsay has bought his fourth pub - the York and Albany, in Camden, north London. The chef is rumoured to have paid around £4m for the site.

The pub requires refurbishment and is expected to re-open in May.

Ramsay's acquisition comes three years after his first opening - the Narrow, in east London's Limehouse. The pub, held on a lease from Waterside Pub Partnership, a joint venture between British Waterways and Scottish & Newcastle Pub Enterprises, has seen turnover quadruple to £1.5m a year.

Ramsay's others pubs are the Devonshire, in Chiswick - an Enterprise lease - and the Warrington Hotel in Maida Vale, which he acquired for about £5m. The new Camden pub is rumoured to have been lined up for Ramsay's protégé Angela Hartnett. It will also be a hotel with 10 luxury rooms.

Hartnett, who specialises in Italian food, will re-open the site in May as the York and Albany .

"It's Angela Hartnett's project," said a project spokeswoman. "It's owned by Gordon Ramsay's group, but Angela will take it under her wing." She described the extensive bar as a "traditional London bar".

Previous owner actor Gary Love spent £2m buying the York and Albany freehold from the Crown Estate in 2006 and a further £1.8m renovating it.