The 1903 Royal Danish Academy of Music — restored period façade, marble staircase, ornamental mouldings — re-skinned inside with the Nobis group's stark concrete, black leather, and brushed-brass design language. Seventy-five rooms, a basement spa with a cold plunge, and Restaurant NOI in the lobby.
"The Nobis group's most architecturally complete property. The contrast between the 1903 Beaux-Arts shell and the Brutalist-Scandinavian fit-out reads as a single coherent argument. The basement spa is the city's most under-appreciated cold-plunge facility."
The building at Niels Brocks Gade 1 was completed in 1903 by the Danish architect Vilhelm Klein as the Royal Danish Academy of Music — a stately Beaux-Arts building of cut limestone, with a Carrara-marble central staircase, plaster mouldings throughout the public rooms, and the high ceilings the early-twentieth-century Danish State commissioned routinely for cultural institutions. The Academy occupied the building for nearly a hundred years before relocating; in September 2017 the Stockholm-based Nobis group reopened the space as the city's most architecturally complete contemporary luxury hotel — preserving every defensible piece of period detail and counter-pointing it with the brand's signature stark concrete, black leather, brushed brass, and tactile linen interior language.
The 75 rooms and suites run from cosy 19-square-metre Standards through 38-square-metre Deluxes to the named suites at the building's corners. The room finishes are deliberately monochromatic — wide-plank parquet, white-painted high windows with crossbars, freestanding tubs in the larger rooms, and oversized brass-fitted showers. Some categories are honestly small for a five-star, even by central Copenhagen standards — the Standard rooms feel tighter than the rate suggests they should. The Junior Suites and the named suites at the corner positions are the better value bookings here. The Junior Suites looking onto Niels Brocks Gade are the better choice; the rear-facing rooms can hear traffic noise from H.C. Andersens Boulevard.
Restaurant NOI — the all-day kitchen in the former Academy concert hall — runs a New Nordic register, with the city's most reliable hotel weekday lunch and a Sunday brunch that fills the dining room. The kitchen draws from a tight roster of small Zealand growers and runs an unusually composed wine list for an in-house property. The lobby bar is one of the city's quieter places for an early-evening drink. The hotel does not currently hold a Michelin star; Restaurant NOI's cooking is consistently strong without being ambitious in the same way Marchal at the d'Angleterre or Nicholson at 1 Hotel are.
The basement holds the property's most distinctive feature — a serious wellness facility centred on a Turkish steam bath, sauna, and a deep cold-plunge pool that is among the best of its class at any Copenhagen hotel. Treatments use the Skåne-based Sjöblom skincare line. The fitness centre is open 24 hours. The position is the most central five-star option for guests arriving by train (Central Station is two minutes' walk) and is closest to Tivoli's southern entrance. It is not the city's grandest five-star, nor its most architecturally distinctive — but as a quietly serious design hotel that does the basics impeccably, the Nobis is the most underrated of Copenhagen's top five.
For Copenhagen business stays at the design-luxury level, Nobis is the address for guests who would rather not be in the d'Angleterre's traditionalist register or in a 280-room property like Villa Copenhagen. The position two minutes from Central Station, the discreet lobby (which is not a public meeting venue in the way of the d'Angleterre or Nimb), and the Restaurant NOI weekday lunch make this the most efficient business hotel in the city. The basement spa is the unusual amenity for a corporate property.
For solo travellers, Nobis is the most considered design-led option in the city — quiet rooms, a serious wellness facility, the lobby bar that is comfortable for a single guest with a book, and the most architecturally complete hotel interior on the list. The lower-floor rooms are smaller than the rate suggests; the Junior Suites at the front of the building are the right booking for a solo three-or-more-night stay.
For an anniversary at the design-led end, Nobis offers a more contemporary register than the d'Angleterre or Nimb — a Junior Suite with the freestanding tub, a Restaurant NOI evening, an hour at the basement cold plunge, and the position directly between Tivoli Gardens, the Glyptotek, and Strøget. The combination is more architectural than romantic, which is the point.
Niels Brocks Gade 1
1574 Copenhagen V
Denmark
København H (Central Station) two minutes' walk; CPH airport 13 minutes by metro M2
75 rooms & suites
Standard Rooms from €380/night
Junior Suites from €620/night
Named Suites from €1,200/night
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 12:00 PM
Building 1903; opened as Nobis hotel September 2017
Basement spa with cold plunge
Turkish steam bath & sauna
Restaurant NOI in former concert hall
Marble period staircase
Design Hotels member
Twenty-four-hour fitness centre
From €380/night. Junior Suites and named suites are the better value; book three months ahead for spring and autumn weekends and four months ahead for any conference week.
Book This Hotel →In continuous operation since 1755. The lobby alone is the city's most reliable place for a coffee meeting.
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