So slightly to my surprise early Wednesday morning I found myself walking round a property and eyeing up its potential as a palace for the sale of good Irish cheese.

Afterwards someone sent me message ‘Any Scope? or too big/expensive?’ and I was bound to reply “All three!”

It was very big. Three floors; basement, ground and first, stretching back from the street. In the basement there was a strengthen piece of glass covering on the floor with a do not dive in sign. This was a well and turns out the place had once been an ink factory and the water had been used for the ink. The building was late Victorian and there was something of a warehouse about the place.

The ground floor still had the old wooden floor. It was rough and scuffed with use but looked intact and good enough to scrub up. The ceiling was held up with heavy grey ironwork and there were high windows going down one side of the room and at the back.

The first floor had a vaulted ceiling with the same heavy ironwork. It had the same windows and although they were covered up it felt light and airy. It didn’t take too much imagination to clear away the factory fittings and to put down a bar at one end and then a series of tables and chairs and groups of people sat round eating and drinking.

But then there was an awkward dark mezzanine floor, a tatty small kitchen and an internal office that had been created out of plaster board and plastic.

The place itself was expensive and there would be a heavy cost in doing anything with it. And then when all the ‘it’ had been done would there be enough people to come and make it work. There are only a limited number Irish cheeses it is possible to sell in a week.

We shall see.