Beware the promise of bucolic bliss that comes with invitations to stay in a converted oast house, mill, stable block or schoolhouse. Too many country hotels and B&Bs think we want to live like Mrs Tiggywinkle. But if we don't deck our own homes with dried flowers, festoon blinds and pot-pourri, why should we want them when we're away?
Let's not sneer, though, at hotels with history. We've tracked down city conversions which aren't full of swags, chintz and four-posters. You may not like all the art, the Feng Shui water feature in the lobby or the noisy crush at the bar, but you'll love the clean lines, designer bathrooms and linen sheets.
All the hotels listed blend urban chic with interesting and sometimes dark pasts. So if you've never owned, or even seen, a gingham jampot cover, here's where to find them...
Hamburg
Gastwerk
3 Daimlerstrasse
£65
It takes guts to turn an ugly, unloved, 150-year-old gasworks into a temple to industrial chic, but Gastwerk's design team have pulled it off. Architecture students, design junkies and anyone who lives in a two-up two-down will love its large loft-style rooms, flooded with light. Conferences sit well with the heavy metal pipes, exposed brick, wood and leather, but it's best at weekends when the suits have left. There's an open fire, some snuggly chairs in quiet corners, a garden and a sauna. Downside? It's a 15-minute cab ride to town.
Cologne
The Hopper St Antonius
32 Dagoberstrasse
£65/£85
The Hopper's stark minimalism isn't everyone's cuppa. It's housed in a former mental asylum, and manager Elke Balkhausen claims the monochrome colour scheme and hospital-white sheets 'free your mind'. If you don't like slide-rule precision, it could drive you mad; the bathrooms are bright enough for a photo-shoot. The 54 rooms are graded from S to XXL, like Gap T-shirts. Best is room 501 (yes, like the Levis). It's graded M (a standard double) and has a terrace for two with views of Cologne's famed Gothic cathedral.
Hotel im Wasserturm
2 Kaygasse
£105/£125
(00 49 221 20 080)
This 11-storey water tower has been seamlessly converted into an 88-room hotel. Smart enough to pull in Cologne's celebrities and visiting presidents, its Art Deco-ish interior is by French designer André Putman, with lots of curvy furniture and funky lighting. The impeccably elegant top-floor restaurant attracts well-heeled locals and the ground-floor, red-carpet-and-black-leather bar serves the city's most grown-up cocktails.
Paris
Bel-Ami
7-11 Rue Saint-Benoit
£150
Bel-Ami has been everything from a sixteenth-century coach house to a government print shop and a shady boite de nuit . Today it's as cool as the Left Bank can be, as minimalist as Paris dares, in mouthwatering colours of caramel, vanilla, pistachio and chocolate. The wacky breakfast room - with silver chairs, acid green leather sofas and industrial lamps - will slice through your worst hangover. Quiet by day, monochrome lovelies throng the bar at night - along with the occasional existentialist.
Edinburgh
Point Hotel
34 Bread Street
£95
Architect Andrew Doolan has produced a 140-room hotel from a Victorian branch of the Co-op, without leftovers from the fancy goods department. Its spacious corridors attract art students and weekend rubberneckers. Colour does the talking in uncluttered rooms, most with views of the castle. Some find the neon and stainless steel forbidding, but it has a dedicated following.
Nottingham
Lace Market
29-31 High Pavement
£69/£99
Looking for a little gem? This 27-room Georgian town house hotel wouldn't look out of place in London or Manhattan. Once a pair of wealthy merchants' houses, latterly a probation office, it's most fun at weekends when groovy shopping grannies mix with club DJs for Bloody Marys and all-day brunch. They've kept the old wood-and-brass lift and huge sash windows, adding modern touches with chrome, suede and funky clear-glass washbasins. Merchants, the hotel brasserie, does a better steak béarnaise and frites than any Conran outlet.
Leeds
42 The Calls
£105/£138
(0113 244 0099)
The city's most fashionable address, craftily converted from a Victorian grain mill on the River Aire, was a pioneer in the bijou hotel movement and part of Leeds' renaissance from dirty old town to pulsing financial centre. Now 10 years old, every one of its 41 rooms is different; the staff do their best to match you with woolly blankets or faux leopardskin throws. Fun extras include bits of mysterious mill machinery and a fishing rod in every room. Guests can sign bills at six of the city's best restaurants, virtually on the doorstep. Clever.
Oxford
Old Bank
92-94 High Street
£135/£155
Think Euro-suit, rather than mortar board; this handsome conversion from a Georgian bank is smart . Paris designer Gladys Wag ner has gone for under-stated opulence in the 43 rooms - linen sheets, suede headboards, shantung and palm-frond pictures in the bathrooms. All is suitably hushed - until you get into the Quod Bar & Grill. Oxford's under-30s have embraced this Italian eaterie and it's the hottest spot in town.
London
Great Eastern Hotel
Liverpool Street
£210/£240
This dazzling, Conran-designed revamp of a Victorian railway hotel has to be seen. It's a meeting between pared-down Habitat and sweeping 19th-century staircases, stained glass and vaulted ceilings. All 267 linen-sheeted rooms are Pullman-carriage plush, with splashes of Vatican purple, gold and red. City suits pack the four restaurants in the week, but the atrium is also booked for fashion shows, music and media awards.
Prices in this report are for a standard single room, followed by a standard double room. Where only one price is given, the hotel makes the same room charge for either double or single occupancy. Check for reduced weekend rates.
How to book
All these hotels apart from 42, The Calls and Hotel im Wasserturm belong to a hotel consortium called Design Hotels.
There is a central booking number: 0800 169 8817.
