The former prisons turned into luxury hotels
Take a (jail) break in these former prisons that have been reimagined as stylish hotels.
Jails ain’t gaols any more. Around the world a sharp new breed of boutique hotels is liberating old penitentiaries from their grim pasts. In these reformed hotels, the bars are mainly cocktail and the only chains heard are brand names. Unlike The Eagles’ demonic Hotel California, having checked out any time you like, you can also leave.
1 Bodmin Jail Hotel, Cornwall, England
Bodmin Gaol opened in 1779 beside the sombre Bodmin moors, the setting for Daphne du Maurier’s classic novel Jamaica Inn. With the Royal Navy occupying the gaol during World War I, the building hosted its most famous “guests”, the British Crown Jewels. The prison closed in 1927. Following painstaking restoration, it has re-emerged as a luxury hotel with even the spelling of its name modernised. The formidable walls and cells remain but today’s inmates do it easy with king-size beds, Egyptian linens and five-star comforts. There are dog-friendly rooms (with a free extra sausage at breakfast) and the guilty pleasures at the Jolly Hangman Tavern include Convicted Vegan cheeseburgers and Last Rites desserts. Rooms from $374 a night.
Extra time: Du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn; Led Zeppelin’s Gallows Pole.
2 The Liberty Hotel, Boston, US
This granite landmark did almost 140 years as the Charles Street Jail before closing in 1990. Now a 298-room hotel, the impeccable Liberty has five restaurants, including the aptly named Clink located in former cells with barred windows. Walkways survey the atrium lobby, where a 27m-high glass ceiling frames what Oscar Wilde once called “that little tent of blue which prisoners call the sky”. Today, where the black activist Malcolm X was once a prisoner, the Liberty’s “luggage liaison” team whisks guests’ bags directly from airport to suite. From $365 a night.
Extra time: Read or watch The Shawshank Redemption; Prison Song by System of a Down.
3 Warders Hotel, Fremantle, Western Australia
Hoosegow, pokey, cooler, stir or Her Majesty’s Hotel? One slang synonym best fits the World Heritage-listed Fremantle Prison, “the big house”. This 1850s jail covers 6ha and processed 10,000 convict transportees before becoming a civilian prison. The old jail-keepers’ cottages are now Warders, an 11-room boutique hotel where local art, handcrafted furniture and marble bathrooms have civilised the original timbers and hewn limestone. Freo’s high-vis bolters included bushranger Moondyne Joe, the Irish Republican “Catalpa” rebels and 1990s “postcard bandit” Brenden Abbott. AC/DC’s late frontman Bon Scott did a stint here in 1963. Contemplate it all over a cocktail in the Gimlet Bar or dinner at Emily Taylor restaurant. From $181 a night.
Extra time: The Catalpa Rescue by Peter FitzSimons; AC/DC’s Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.
4 Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at Sultanahmet, Turkey
This luxurious 65-room hotel in Istanbul’s old city started life as an Ottoman prison. Despite the dire early title of Capital City Murder Jail, it mainly housed juveniles, dissidents and intellectuals. The penitentiary closed in 1969 and re-opened as a hotel in 1996 with its Turkish neoclassical features impeccably restored. Marble flooring and damask fabrics counterpoint the heavy doors and guard towers of its darker decades. Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and Bosphorus are all within strolling distance. Temporarily closed, it will reopen in January next year.
Extra time: Orhan Pamuk’s Memories and the City; Midnight Express, the movie or book.
5 Het Arresthuis, Roermond, The Netherlands
Het Arresthuis closed in 2007 after 144 years of living up to its plain-speaking name. Following an extensive makeover this “arrest house” reopened in 2011 as a hotel, with its 105 original cells transformed into 36 elegant guestrooms. A set of luxury suites with titles such as the Jailer, Lawyer, Director and Judge cries out for the segue “… walked into a bar”. The spacious lounge was once a prison walkway and the crims’ spartan gym, now equipped with modern cardio machines, overlooks Roermond’s medieval skyline. Damianz restaurant serves Dutch delicacies and the old jailhouse rocks when Het Cellenblok (“the cell block”) hosts parties. From $255 a night.
Extra time: Rubber Bullets by 10CC; Chain Gang by Sam Cooke.
6 Courthouse Hotel Shoreditch, London
Old Street Magistrates Court and Police Station quit its long association with criminality back in 1996 and has assumed a new identity, the Courthouse Hotel Shoreditch. It still name-drops 1960s lags such as the Kray Twins (“demanding money with menaces”), the Glimmer Twins, aka Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (“possession of illegal substances”) and hard-case playwright Joe Orton (“stealing library books”). With 128 spacious rooms and suites, restaurant, spa and a London-view terrace, there’s little reason to break out from this joint. Should you, it’s a short walk to the city’s best shops and the West End. From $372 a night.
Extra time: Oscar Wilde’s Ballad of Reading Gaol; Rolling Stones’ Can I Get a Witness.
shoreditch.courthouse-hotel.com
7 Sofitel Luang Prabang, Laos
First a French colonial fort and then a Lao government prison, this tranquil 25-suite resort emerged in 2006 branded as Hotel de la Paix. Luang Prabang, a former royal capital on the Mekong River, is rich with World Heritage architecture and the hotel redevelopment stringently preserved those values. Outer walls and watchtowers are reminders of its institutional days but rose gardens and a pool have mellowed the old quadrangle. The suites feature four-poster beds, silk-lined walls and private pools. From $519 a night.
Extra time: Henri Charriere’s Papillon and Christopher Kremmer’s Bamboo Palace; Back on the Chain Gang, The Pretenders.
8 Malmaison Oxford, Oxford, Britain
This slammer with both history and style is part of Oxford Castle, which dates back to William the Conqueror. The old HM Prison Oxford closed in 1996 and has been repurposed as a stylish 95-room hotel and member of the Malmaison hospitality chain. Original cells were merged to form 38 rooms, which still feature iron doors and barred windows. Claw-foot tubs, a cocktail bar and a brasserie enhance any time served behind these storied walls. Perhaps ironically, this former house of detention is also a popular wedding venue. From $270 a night.
Extra time: Affinity by Sarah Waters; Janis Joplin’s Ball and Chain.
9 Hotel Katajanokka, Helsinki, Finland
The bars have melted on this lockup founded in 1837, when Russia ruled Finland. The main building of the historic Helsinki County Prison operated from 1888 until 2002. Following major renovations it reopened in 2007 as a superior hotel with multiple cells merged to form 106 suites with unfussy Scandinavian decor. Among the features preserved by Finland’s Board of Antiquities are the original chapel and forbidding red brick boundary walls. On a lighter note, the in-house restaurant is named Jailbird. From $245 a night.
Extra time: Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment; Walls of Red Wing by Bob Dylan.
10 Hotel Liberty, Offenburg, Germany
Liberty’s restaurant Wasser & Brot doffs its toque to the cuisine penitentiaire staples, water and bread. Meanwhile, there’s nothing ironic about the oak floors and handcrafted furniture of its 38 sleek guestrooms and suites. The original building and massive walls date back to 1840 when the jail incarcerated free thinkers, socialists and clergy, along with criminals. During the Nazi era, French Resistance fighters and Jews were also held here. As a designer hotel since 2017, the Liberty has transcended its history. Guests wine and dine in its sandstone-walled cellar while their EV cars guzzle kilowatts free at the recharging stations. From $275 a night.
Extra time: I Fought the Law by The Clash; All Along the Watchtower, Jimi Hendrix.