2021’s hottest new hotels #UK
The bobby dazzlers opening up across the land this year.
THE PIG SOUTH DOWNS, WEST SUSSEX
You know when people harp on about reinventing the hotel or, if they really want to work our reserve nerve, ‘redefine’ it? Most of them are talking right out of their Marketing for Dummies, or at least their very own jacksies. Not so the wily folk down The Pig, who created a new genre of country house hotel back in 2011 with their English manors straight out of a Daphne du Maurier where it’s all about grounds-to-table food, lashings of drink to wash it all down, clever interiors and acres and acres of green ‘n’ pleasant for your romantic perambulations. And this year we’re getting another, down on the West Sussex coast close to Arundel, where Madehurst Lodge is the lucky Grade II-listed so-and-so getting dressed up to the Piggy nines just in time for summer.
Opening summer 2021
thepighotel.com
THE FARMYARD AT THE NEWT, SOMERSET
Just down the road from Somerset’s glittering Bruton, which is what is known in the business as hot to trot right now, is The Newt, which is what is known in the business as one of the world’s most drop dead gorgeous country house hotels. So far, so wish we were there. But this year they’re opening The Farmhouse, adding another glorious 17 bedrooms and suites peppered across a cluster of historic buildings tucked away in a corner of the hotel’s estate. Accessible through traditional cyder (with a y!) orchards, The Farmyard has its own pool, bar and farm-to-table culinary experiences - but then there’s always the rest of The Newt to play with.
Opening spring 2021
thenewtinsomerset.com
THE ALBION, ABERTEIFI
Heard of fforest? Spelt with two ffs for your pleasure? A way-cool rural dreamland of eco domes and crog lofts and garden shacs and kata cabins all with lashings of slick Japanese design and foodie food and drinkie drink, creating a hybrid farm of fun in West Wales? That’s the one! This year they’re adding a new hotel concept, The Albion, where two historic warehouses perched over the River Teifi will become one refined boutique hotel with 23 keys and a whole bunch of easy-on-the-eye rustic-luxe.
Opening early 2021
coldatnight.co.uk/the-albion-aberteifi
THE GRADUATE, OXFORD + CAMBRIDGE
Why open one rather swell hotel when you can open two? And why stick to one fabled university town when you can have two? Both situated slap-bang in the cultural centres of their respective cities, each have gone for rich, look-at-me interiors, but, you know, proper classy. Smart move, as they’re betting on a clientele of la-di-da families dropping off progeny and international types who have seen the inside of a book or three.
Opening spring 2021
graduatehotels.com/oxford-uk
graduatehotels.com/cambridge
THE DOUBLE RED DUKE, CLANFIELD, OXFORDSHIRE
If you’re going to base your new hotel in a classic English coaching inn slap bang in the best bit of the Cotswolds - and you might be - then you’d better make sure it’s a honey-stoned one. Because who wants anything other than honey-coloured stone when they’re Cotswolding? No one we would have in the house! Anyways, The Double Red Duck in Clanfield, near Oxford, is such a thing and is the brain-child of Sam and Georgie Pearson, who you might remember from The Lucky Onion and who you’ll now have to remember as founders of a new collection of rural inns - some honey-coloured, some not - called Country Creatures. Their new to-be jewel in the crown will be crammed full of quality British brands, all working a heritage vibe, while Richard E Turner and Richard Sandiford - we know them as the Two Dicks - of Hawksmoor and Pitt Cue Co fame, will be serving up a meaty menu for the welly-wearing crowd.
Opening spring 2021
countrycreatures.com
GLENEAGLES TOWNHOUSE, EDINBURGH
We know. You saw the word Gleneagles and had a golf-related shudder thinking of middle-age spreads stretching out powder pink sweaters and jazzy trousers teamed with a sensible shoe. But no. We’re not talking that Gleneagles but a brand-new townhouse hotel in the heart of Edinburgh’s New Town (which is Georgian, the Old Town being... erm, older). Shaken and stirred by the people behind The Hoxton group, who we have a lot of time for (remember events in The Hoxton and the Holborn outpost?), they’re looking at 33 bedrooms, a members’ club and a roof terrace, with glass to keep the chill off you as you order up another dram. Smart for town and no mistake.
Opening autumn 2021
gleneagles.com
THE STAR, ALFRISTON, SOUTH DOWNS
You know Alex Polizzi. Yes, you do. The Hotel Inspector. You might also know that she’s the daughter of hotel legend Sir Rocco Forte, because that’s how things happen these days: you have to be related to someone. Anyway, Alex is about to unleash upon us a refurbed, redone, re-imagined, re-defined, re-[add your own cliche here] version of one of her grandfather’s (because that’s how things happened in those days as well) old hotels, The Star. Set amidst the beauties of the South Downs in the sweet little medieval market town of Alfriston, The Star is a classic Tudor-style pub with all the black beams and hanging baskets lovers of trad English pubs could desire but with very smart twists pretty much everywhere. Yet to be unveiled - which is why we’re waffling - it will make a very lovely country weekend not too far from the city.
Opening May 2021
thepolizzicollection.com
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