[AJR]

From The Observer, 4th December 2005

Lock me up and throw away the key

Oxford jail has been reborn as a stylish hotel. Mike Carter samples life on the inside.

As any reasonable Daily Mail reader will tell you, these days prisons are more like hotels than places of punishment. Certainly, when I walked into Oxford jail and my welcoming committee asked if I'd had a pleasant journey and would I like breakfast in bed and the papers delivered to my room, I was tempted to conclude that the voice of middle England has a point.

But before outraged taxpayers descend on the city with flaming torches, I must explain that Her Majesty's Prison Oxford is Maj's no longer. For after being decommissioned in 1995, and after a decade of wrangling as to what to do with the Grade I listed building that's part Victorian Gothic and part Norman castle, the council decided to allow the city centre site to be developed into a £40 million complex of restaurants, apartments and a hotel. And Malmaison, custodian of stylish urban cool, with previous in nine UK cities, was given the nod by the judges.

From the outside, Mal Oxford is the classic Cinderella's castle of a Victorian jail: all crenellations, cruciform arrow slits and turrets. In the dimly lit reception area, vaulted ceilings, limestone floors and Gothic arches continue the theatrical theme. To one side, in a dark-panelled lounge area, lit through a mullioned window, a flat-screen TV was showing episodes of Porridge, suggesting that, if there is just a hint of camp and kitsch going on here, Malmaison is firmly in on the joke.

I was met by John Thomas-Ferrand, 57, the former governor of Oxford Prison, who was visiting for the first time since leaving in 1990, and Michael Warren, the hotel's general manager.

Warren took us up in the lift. On the wall was the floorplan: the House of Correction (the former punishment block, where a suite with a shower room big enough for a rugby team now suggests anything but punishment); the Governor's House (a wing of huge bare-brickwork duplex suites, some with Mal's signature bathtubs in the living room); and the Exercise Yard (the gym, obviously).

We walked out of the lift onto the landing of A Wing. Walkways hugged the stone walls, linked to the other floors by iron staircases. At each end, vast windows flooded the atrium with light and dotted along the landings, like sunken tombstones, were the tiny red cell doors, all originals. All that was missing was the clicking heels of Mr Mackay.

Warren took us into a room and explained how Malmaison has knocked three cells into one to create each space. Following the curves of the ceiling, you see where steel joists now mark the former parameters of the tiny single cells where up to three men would sleep. A slipper bath sits under a small half-moon window, with the remnants of the now hacked-away bars sticking out. It was quite chilling.

Thomas-Ferrand explained the awful stench that would fill the landing in the mornings when the doors were opened for slopping out. Then the manager pointed to a battered metal plate covering the whole door, where a previous 'guest', presumably staying for longer than the weekend, had vented his rage. 'That,' said Warren, 'is a barometer of frustration.'

Also in the door was the original 'Judas Hole', so-called by the prisoners because it allowed the guards to betray them. In a neat inversion, the Judas Holes now only look out. Clunky metal handles replicate the originals, from which hang signs saying 'I want to be alone' or 'Room upside down'.

Leading off the landing was the Chateau Lounge, the room where visitors used to meet their incarcerated loved ones and, according to Thomas-Ferrand, often swapped more than stories about life outside. On the subject of drugs, he recalls that one of the main hazards of prison life was the lobbing over the walls of parcels of cannabis and, bizarrely, drunken students banging on the gate in the middle of the night demanding to be let in. Now, the Chateau Lounge boasts nothing more mood-altering than a selection of fine cognac.

In the vaults under A Wing is the restaurant, a labyrinth of dining chambers and a dedicated wine-tasting room, formerly the solitary confinement cell.

But, stunning as Mal Oxford is, there's no escaping (sorry) the fact that this is a former prison where men and women lived in distress, and there will be those that question the morality of such a conversion.

So perhaps the ultimate word should go to the former governor. 'As a governor I was always strongly idealistic and I believe in reform,' he said. 'So at this moment I feel hugely refreshed that dear old Oxford Prison, which was far too old to be modernised, has been transformed like this.'

• Rooms in Malmaison Oxford cost from £135 per night (0845 365 4247; www.malmaison.com).

[Gordon]

Best way to preserve a castle............ keep it used! Brilliant.

[Duncan]

For some reasons best not said I'm sure this renovation will draw the best sort of people.

[Galla]

Well at least they are attempting to renovate the place. Even if not keeping with period practices, they are at least working to keep it from rotting.

[AJR]

From the Royal Watch News, 18th April 2006

Queen to open castle

Queen Elizabeth is set to open a redeveloped castle which has been transformed into a luxury hotel. The monarch will unveil the modernised Oxford Castle - which will boast luxury rooms, a restaurant, and an art gallery - in a ceremony in May.

The 11th Century castle, which was formerly a prison, closed in 1990 and has only been used as a film set since then, entertaining stars such as Brad Pitt, Gerard Depardieu, and Glenn Close.

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From the BBC Website, 5th May 2006

Queen opens historic development

The Queen is officially opening an ancient castle and jailhouse which has been transformed into a luxury hotel, restaurants and an art gallery.

The 11th Century Oxford Castle site includes St George's Tower and the Castle Mound, which are some of the oldest structures in the city.

The final part of the redevelopment - the heritage and education centre - will be completed later this month. The Queen will attend a formal opening ceremony on Friday [today].

The Malmaison chain has spent £20m on turning the prison at the centre of the site into a hotel. It has not been used as a prison since the 1990s.

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From the Oxford Mail, 6th May 2006

Queen visits prison turned into luxury hotel and heritage centre

The Queen looked in the pink as she delighted Royal watchers by officially opening the £40m Oxford Castle development in glorious sunshine.

The 11th century site was packed for the occasion, with 500 guests waiting to greet her yesterday. The site off New Road has undergone a radical facelift, including the £20m transformation of the former Oxford Prison into the Malmaison Hotel.

The Queen smiled and waved to the crowd as she arrived promptly at 11.45am, dressed in a pink, three-quarter length coat and matching hat with black trim. She was then taken on a tour of the complex, which includes restaurants, an art gallery, and a heritage and education centre. The Queen unveiled a plaque to mark the opening the culmination of years of work by joint developers Trevor Osborne and the county council.

Mr Osborne told the Oxford Mail: "The Queen's visit is a tremendous honour for us, and a celebration of eight years' work. I am presenting her with a photographic record of the changes here, which I hope she will enjoy. Everything is coming on stream now the restaurants are full and last night the hotel was fully booked."

Council leader Keith Mitchell added: "The Queen told me she was intrigued by the history of the site and the unusual nature of the buildings. We are delighted to have the Royal seal of approval."

During her visit, the Queen was shown one of the Malmaison Hotel's bedrooms, which has been converted from former prison cells. She was shown the bedroom by Michael Jenkins, who was governor of Oxford Prison from 1973 to 1978.

He said: "Three cells have been turned into a bedroom and bathroom and it's very palatial, and very different from when I was here. The Queen seemed very impressed I don't think she has been in a prison cell before."

Debbie Dance, of Oxford Preservation Trust, which will run the heritage centre at the site called Oxford Castle Unlocked, also showed the Queen round.

She said: "Everyone knows the history of the university, but now we are opening up the history of the city for the people of Oxford."

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith said he was delighted by the "terrific turnout".
He said: "This project brings together the city's history with an attractive modern development."

Spectators were out in force by 9am to get a glimpse of the Queen. During her tour, she was introduced to pupils from Pegasus Primary School, Blackbird Leys, and New Marston Primary School. She had lunch at Christ Church in St Aldate's, where she met, among others, the Dean, the Very Rev Christopher Lewis, and Evan Harris, MP for Oxford West and Abingdon.

The cathedral bells rang out as the Queen was driven into the Christ Church quad in a maroon Bentley a gift from the car manufacturers to mark the Golden Jubilee in 2002. The choirboys sang grace and a short play was performed in the Queen's honour.

Earlier, she had been given a tour of Oxford University Press's Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

[AJR]

Oxford Castle from Grose's Antiquities, 1773.

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Plans of the castle from the same source, 1776.

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An old postcard of Oxford Castle, recently purchased.

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