The Bad House?

Feeling trapped in your day-to-day life? How about a visit to the house of pain? The big house? The Malmaison Oxford is a former prison which has been converted into a luxury hotel.

This building served as a prison for 125 years before being shuttered in 1996 and converted into a boutique hotel by the London-based chain, Malmaison (which takes its name–literally, “bad house”–from Napoleon’s Paris chateau). The Oxford former prison has retained many of its fixtures, and most rooms are made up of three cells combined.

The site itself has been a prison since the 12th century, but the current prison was built in 1870. Fortunately for guests, the prison was considered particularly “airy” and “light.” It also served as a set for Michael Caine’s The Italian Job.