I’d like to book a double cell ...

A landmark London courthouse where celebrities pleaded their cases is being recycled as a ritzy hotel. Instead of paying a fine to get out, you’ll pay $325 and up per night to get in.

Quirky touches in the Courthouse Hotel Kempinski testify to its former life as the Great Marlborough Street Magistrates’ Court in the Soho district. Iron gates divide the lobby from the lounge. The judges’ benches, witness stand and dock of No. 1 Court survive in the soon-to-be-opened Silk, the main restaurant. The bar incorporates several jail cells.

“There were a lot of features we had to retain to work with English Heritage,” said Girish Sanger of London-based Surejogi Hotels, which bought the courthouse from city authorities in April 2000, soon after it closed down. The building was listed as a historic site by English Heritage, the public body in Britain that protects such properties and restricts changes to them.

The Marlborough court, the hotel’s owners said, has a colorful history. It was here, they said, that Oscar Wilde in 1895 sued the Marquess of Queensberry for libel, an ill-fated move that led to “gross indecency” trials that destroyed the Irish author’s career. In the 1960s and ‘70s, Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were fined on drug charges there.

After buying the building, the family-run Surejogi company, which also owns the Bentley and Washington hotels in London, invested more than $33 million in renovations, making the property nearly three times larger, Sanger said. It now occupies 10 stories, including the roof and two stories underground.

Among the creative adaptations: Diners who desire a table for one may be seated on the witness stand -- no questions asked. Three former women’s jail cells, their toilets sanitized and fitted with champagne buckets, will be available for private bar parties. The cells, Sanger said, are “quite soundproof.” In another bonus for revelers, he added, “We’re giving people pens to write on the walls.”

Sanger said he expected the bar, the Carnaby brasserie and most of the hotel’s 116 rooms to open by Dec. 8. The main restaurant and a spa with a pool are to open later in January. A reduced rate, $325 per room per night, will be available for about a month after opening, he said.

Regular rates will start at about $538 and top out at $4,643 for the penthouse suite, outfitted with crystal chandeliers, furnishings, lights and doorknobs designed by the French Lalique company. Reservations through Kempinski at (800) 426-3135, www.kempinski.com.