Bank Hotel, Stockholm – sleeping in a bank palace from 1910

Bronze doors bearing the bank's emblem, an owl and a squirrel in the portal, and a glass ceiling six metres above the dining room. Bank Hotel on Arsenalsgatan has turned an Art Nouveau palace from 1910 into one of Stockholm's most distinctive hotels.

At the entrance to Bank Hotel on Arsenalsgatan in Stockholm sit two animals carved in stone: an owl and a squirrel. The owl stood for wisdom and the squirrel for thrift – two virtues a bank was keen to be associated with when the building went up just over a hundred years ago. Behind them, heavy bronze doors with an octagonal emblem open onto a bright banking hall beneath a glass roof. Today it is laid for breakfast.

Bank Hotel has pulled off one of the hardest things a hotel in an old building can do: keeping the building's character while making it playful.

01The building: a Renaissance palace in Art Nouveau dress

The building was put up between 1907 and 1910 for Bankaktiebolaget Södra Sverige, a bank based in Helsingborg that until then had kept its Stockholm office on Drottninggatan. The architect Thor Thorén designed a three-storey palace on the model of Renaissance palazzi, with a rusticated ground floor and a balustrade along the cornice – yet the features of Art Nouveau are clearly visible in the pale granite facade. The portal is decorated with an oak tree in relief, in which the owl and the squirrel sit.

The bronze doors still bear the bank's octagon. When Södra Sverige merged with Stockholms Handelsbank in 1919 to form Svenska Handelsbanken, the new bank took over the symbol, and it lives on in Handelsbanken's logo today. The building remained a bank for several decades – for Diskontobanken from 1928 to 1951 and for Wermlands Enskilda Bank until 1960 – and was extended by four storeys in 1988 to designs by Laszlo Marko. The banking hall has since served as an exhibition space for Orrefors and as a law firm's library.

In 2015 Stureplansgruppen took over the property to convert it into a hotel, and in 2018 Bank Hotel opened.

02Bonnie's in the banking hall

The heart of the building is the old banking hall, now home to the restaurant Bonnie's. The glass ceiling rises six metres above the floor, and light pours down over the blue-green stucco on the columns. Breakfast is served here every day – a generous buffet plus its own à la carte menu – along with lunch, dinner and weekend brunch. Round off dinner with the dessert called Smash the Piggy Bank.

Insider tip

Le Hibou takes no bookings – arrive early on a summer evening.

03Papillon, Le Hibou and the wine cellar

The Papillon bar takes its cue from the former bank director's office, with mahogany-panelled walls and fitted carpet. The name – French for butterfly – comes, according to the hotel, from the bank director's favourite animal. Cocktails and a full menu are served here from lunch until dinner.

At the very top is Le Hibou, a cocktail and terrace bar with views over the city and Nybroviken, decorated to evoke an exclusive Parisian suite. Le Hibou does not take table bookings for small groups – you simply turn up. The Perspectives menu is built around ten cocktails, each ingredient interpreted in two ways, and there is a wide range of alcohol-free drinks too. The hotel also has The Wine Cellar.

04Rooms and suites

According to Wikipedia, the hotel opened with 110 rooms. The categories start with Elegant Essential at 15 square metres – and, for those who want to stay in truly bank-like fashion, a windowless version in the vault. Further up are suites such as the Stockholm Town Suite, Bank Heritage Suite and Bank Director Suite, and at the very top two terrace suites, the Penthouse Executive Terrace Suite and the Bank Rooftop Terrace Suite.

Bank Hotel is a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World and, according to the hotel, has been awarded a Michelin Key. The hotel is cashless.

05Who it suits

Bank Hotel is for those who want a hotel with a sense of humour: rooms in the vault, a dessert that smashes the piggy bank and a bar named after a bank director's favourite animal. At the same time it is a serious hotel, with its original bronze doors, stucco and a glass ceiling over the dining room that turns breakfast into an occasion. The location makes it easy to manage without taxis – Kungsträdgården, Strandvägen and Gamla Stan are all within walking distance.

06Location: between Kungsträdgården and Nybroviken

Arsenalsgatan is by Blasieholmstorg, a stone's throw from Kungsträdgården, and from there it is a few minutes to Strandvägen, Nationalmuseum and Norrmalmstorg. See the district on VERA PI's map of Norrmalm, plan your walk with Metro Mode's Stockholm map and carry on towards the water with our guide Strandvägen, house by house. And if you want to know who designed the palaces around Blasieholmstorg, point your phone at the facades with Metro Mode Camera.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.