Incarcer-Vacations: 11 Prisons-Turned-Hotels
Culture/History, Featured, Offbeat — By Rachel Greenberg on October 30, 2010 at 8:30 am4. Malmaison Oxford – Oxford, UK
Image: Rose Robinson/Flickr
Built in 1870, this Victorian prison seems like it was made to be a hip hotel. With three tiers of cells in the central galley illuminated by massive windows, the original Oxford Prison was considered to be a real 5 star place, as for a prisons go, when it was originally built. But after years of overcrowding, the building was put on up for sale.
The only caveat? The integrity of the original structure had to be completely maintained. Although it was a tall order, we think they did a pretty amazing job modernizing the building with only a few changes (like putting in safety glass, expanding the cells, and upgrading to top of the line en-suite amenities).
.Image: KiwiCollection
Image: KiwiCollection
They even kept the solitary confinement cells intact, but turned them into a high-brow restaurant, Brasserie.
16 Comments
The Protea Hotel Breakwater Lodge in Capetown, South Africa is another one.
Near Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada there was a German prisoner of war camp during World War Two. Following the war, it was turned into the Gateway Hotel – a Jewish summer resort.
My wife and I stayed at the Hostel Celica, Ljubljana, Slovenia, when backpacking around Europe!
This is definitely a party hostel, close to the main train station and centre of town!
A must see and stay!
I wouldnt mind staying at the 4 seasons prison in Turkey. looks great. Excellent article by the way, I recently found a you tube video of haunted houses that were turned in hotel rooms, http://www.onlyrooms.com
gaol isn’t kooky canadian for anything- it’s another way of spelling jail, it comes from middle english and old french, and is the way jail is commonly spelled in the UK!
Alcatraz: the next Native American casino operation in partnership with the U.S. government and other gaming experts . . .
Also, the jailhotel in Lucerne, Switzerland.
http://www.jailhotel.ch/html_e/frame_e.html
The Peninsula Tokyo in Japan, rated as one of the world’s best hotels, allows you to soak indulgently in their luxurious comforts, which hints of Japanese heritage and culture combined with the latest in innovative technology. The hotel is one of the worlds best hotels and an ideal escape from the hustle and bustle of daily life.
cool article and nice hotels huh. hmmm. we can do it ourselves in our homes though. try this site
using: http://newtipsclutter.com/articles/
We stayed at the Protea Hotel Breakwater Lodge in Capetown, South Africa. Great place to stay considering the prices in Capetown.
Lloyd Hotel in Amsterdam was a juvenile detention center.
Do you not know the difference between Stalin and Lenin?
I had planned to highlight the Old Goal Backpackers in Grahamstown but now I see they have been kicked out of their cells… http://www.oldgaol.com/
I second bcv’s comment: “Gaol” is actually a British variant of the word “jail”. We kooky Canadians may have used the term “gaol” in the 19th century, but we certainly don’t use that word today.
Seems you forgot Unitas Pension in Prague. Sure it’s a hostel, not a hotel, but it has a ‘presidential’ cell since former president Vaclav Havel was incarcerated there. It’s a weird feeling to close those heavy metal doors on yourself, even though the many locks and tray hole are not functioning anymore.
On a different subject, it’s likely that “gaol” is linked to the French “geôle”, our ancient word for prison. But I don’t know which language used it first.
Oops, apparently they renovated everything since my stay in July 2006, but you can still have a look at the cells in the basement on their archived old website: http://www.unitas.cz/old/