Fans hope to save New York hotel

The hotel is the only one in the US designated a national landmark

Celebrities, labour unions and ordinary fans are joining forces to try to save one of New York's most famous hotels.

The Plaza Hotel is due to close down on 30 April, and to be turned into a department store, apartments, and a smaller "boutique" hotel.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson is leading a rally to save the hotel on Monday, with actress Susan Sarandon also expected.

Built in 1907, the hotel has 805 rooms and employs about 950 staff - many of whom have joined the protests.

A standard room can be obtained for $580 (£300).

The presidential suite costs $15,000 (£7,850), but does sleep 10, and comes with its own chef, a 2,000-bottle wine cellar, and a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce.

Property boom

The famous building hosted the wedding of Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones in 2000.

The French Renaissance-style hotel was also where International Olympic Committee delegates were put up last month during their visit to assess the city as a potential host for the 2012 games.

The hotel is popular with celebrities and New Yorkers alike

The hotel was bought in October by Elad Properties, an Israeli developer hoping to take advantage of the booming property market in Manhattan, where luxury apartments are selling for an average of $1.2m each.

But fans of the old building are vowing to stop it.

They are attempting to have the interior of the hotel given landmark status so its use cannot be changed.

Besides the celebrity regulars, the braided doormen and the waiters, the hotel is also set to be missed by New Yorkers.

Kristin Perkins said she had come to the hotel for possibly the last time, to celebrate Terry Trebling's 47th birthday, and to bring along five-month-old Grace.

"We come to the Plaza for tea on our birthdays," Ms Perkins told London's Times newspaper.

"So we heard the place was closing and we were very, very sad. We had to bring Grace along because she will never see it again. It is such a shame."