Wilmina

Style

Design with conviction

Setting

Assuredly cool Kantstrasse

We’re not positioned to overhaul the justice system, but we have proof that prison reform can considerably improve conditions: Berlin’s spectacular hideaway Wilmina hotel. In a moving show of turning the city’s complex past into a thoughtful, engaged enterprise, Grüntuch Ernst Architects have preserved much of this 1896 courthouse and prison (heavy doors, window bars, iron staircases, even an intact cell), while freeing its spaces up into a starkly romantic eatery, convivial billiards lounge, expressive exhibition halls and bright white bedrooms. Sustainable, Michelin key-awarded, coolly stylish in that inimitable Berlin fashion, and with secret guests-only gardens, everyone involved has absolutely done this monument justice.

Facilities

Rooms

44, including three suites.

Checkout

Noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

More Details

Rates don’t include breakfast (from €22 a guest), but guests can get free coffee and tea in the lounge.

Also

The hotel is fully wheelchair accessible, with a lift to all floors and two rooms which have specially adapted bathrooms.

Fitness Center

Free Internet Access

Laundry

Pet Friendly

Pool

On-Site Restaurant

Spa

At the Hotel

Roof terrace, guests-only garden, two courtyards, lounge with small library (with art and design books and cool magazines) and fireplace, 24-hour gym, spa and sauna, billiards table and board games to borrow, small boutique, charged laundry service (not available on Sundays), and free WiFi. In rooms: smart TV with Chromecast, desk, free bottled water, Frama bath products.

Our Favourite Rooms

No-one will be rattling on the bars to be released from the hotel’s gallery-white-walled rooms, which have luxe touches by the way of Cocomat beds and Frama bath products, and are softened up with veils and framed, pressed plants and flowers (picked by the owners and their daughter). If you prefer just ‘the cool’ over ‘the cooler’, the penthouse suites are on the building’s new top storey and have chainmail veils to shield the windows rather than bars. But, our favourite might be the Garden Loft, which has its own private entrance (through an original door), a small kitchenette, and some of those original parts to add an edge to your stay.

Spa

There’s no spa, but up in the eaves you’ll find a sauna which can be booked privately for one-hour sessions. The gym has a stepper, treadmill, weights for buffing up and yoga mats to borrow – and, we suppose, you could traipse around the courtyard for your daily exercise.

Packing Tips

You may be in prison, but Frama products are not a steal, which is why it’s so thoughtful that they’re offered to use for free in your room. This will give you a legitimate reason to splash out on some take-home bottles from the hotel’s boutique.

Also

In the morning the library is a bustling breakfast room (unless it’s summer when you’ll dine on the terrace), but from 2pm it’s a space to read and work. And if the stay seems familiar, that’s because it was a backdrop in The Reader and Alone in Berlin.

Children

Wilmina is surprisingly amenable to junior detention, to a point… All rooms fit a baby cot, some an extra bed, some have a kitchenette; and, while there are few focused distractions, the ambience is welcoming for all ages.

Gallery

Food & Drink

Top Table

Between city view and garden view, go for green; and for cocktails, sit under the strung lights in the courtyard.

Dress Code

No uniform, and any jumpsuits you see these days are more likely to be designer.

Hotel Restaurant

German cuisine isn’t always the wurst (entschuldigung) – chef Sophia Rudolph proves it with her veggie-focused menu at Lovis Restaurant. Her six-course menu might include spiced pumpkin with goat cheese and a spritz of citrus, mushroom ravioli in a Szechuan jus, or confit egg yolk with cabbage and vadouvan seasoning. And don’t worry carnivores – there’s also aged entrecôte, braised beef, confit trout… It’s hard to believe that the wildly romantic dining room – with soaring brick walls, dramatic drapery, strings of lights that float like fireflies, and a lush garden to spill out onto – was once the courthouse’s lockyard, now spectacularly reformed. Wilmina Brot, the hotel’s gleaming new bakery, covers all things buttery and flaky, offering croissants, pain au chocolat, and sourdough ready to tempt your palate.

Hotel Bar

You’re less likely to find yourself behind a bar, than slid into a booth at Lovis clinking a date-night cocktail, or out in the courtyard enjoying a moment of rare tucked-away peace in a go-go-go city. Soft and alcoholic drinks can be bought at reception too. Maybe take them up to the peaceful roof terrace to enjoy the view. Lotta, the hotel’s day bar, doubles as a breakfast and lunch spot, but its terrace steals the show as the ultimate sundowner destination.

Last Orders

The restaurant is closed on Sunday and Monday. Otherwise, breakfast is served from 7am to 11am (8am till noon on Sundays) and dinner from 6.30pm to 11pm. Wilmina Brot and Lotta are open daily (8am to 6.30pm for Wilmina Brot and 9am to 6pm for Lotta).

Planes

Berlin Brandenburg Airport is just a 30-minute drive from the hotel.

Trains

For roaming around the city, your closest S-Bahn train stop is at Charlottenberg, less than a 10-minute walk away, and the nearest U-Bahn stop is Sophie-Charlotte-Platz, a 10-minute walk north. And, if you’re interrailing cross-continent, you’ll pull in at Berlin Central Station, a 30-minute drive away.

Automobiles

You won’t need a car in Berlin, whose public transport systems are very reliable, and whose citizens tend to prefer greener methods of getting around. But if wheels are a necessity, there’s a garage on site for €26 a night.

Worth Getting Out of Bed For

Philosopher Immanuel Kant’s doctrine of ‘transcendental idealism’ boils down to the belief that we can only know things through experience. So it’s only fitting that while you’re staying on the street named after him (Kantstrasse in the upscale Charlottenburg district), that you get out and do things. Say, head around the corner to cult bookshop Bücherbogen, or maybe laze amid the leafy, lake-y serenity of Lietzenseepark, which has its own beer garden. Head east and you’ll hit the vast zoo and aquarium, head north and Charlottenburg Palace, which, with its many windows, expansive gardens and Rococo swagger, cuts a dashing figure; then the Deutsche Oper opera house shows Berlin’s brilliant old-new contrast with a concrete block of a building. For classic artworks, the Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection is extensive, and for more modern works, there’s Kontor, Galerie Mutare, Stallman, C/O Berlin, the Museum of Photography, and very many more. And, Wilmina itself, with its white walls and fascinating bones makes an excellent exhibition space – indeed, the hotel often hosts cool creative pop-ups and exhibitions (previously working with Amtsalon and Kicken Berlin gallery). To reach the capital’s postcard attractions (the Brandenburg Gate, Alexanderplatz, Checkpoint Charlie, the Reichstag, street-art coated sections of the Berlin Wall, the DDR Museum…), you can take a leisurely hour-long stroll through the Tiergarten, or hop in a cab for 30 minutes. And, you can easily feel like you’ve left the city by exploring the walks, scenic look-outs, historic hunting lodges and sombre memorials of Grunewald Forest beyond the city.

Earn or Redeem Points with World of Hyatt

This Mr & Mrs Smith hotel participates in the World of Hyatt loyalty program. As a member, you can earn and redeem points and enjoy exclusive benefits for qualifying nights. .