Malmaison Oxford

"The British hotel chain Malmaison contrived the United Kingdom’s first prison-into-hotel conversion as part of an urban renewal project at Oxford Castle, situated between Oxford’s train station and shopping district. Here you can rest your head where felons slept until 1996—although truth be told, fully three of the barrel-roofed cells were allotted for each double room and bath. Mal has had to preserve many of the original features of the prison, which was rebuilt in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries on its medieval foundations. The brass door bolts and cast-iron walkways and staircases remain, but the overall effect is warmed and softened by the deft use of fabrics and color in the refurbished cells and in the ancient dungeon, where you can now dine and drink to these improved times."