12 of England’s Best Boutique Hotels
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England brims with beautiful hotels, charming boltholes that celebrate history, art and culture – and often come with phenomenal on-site restaurants and spas. To help you decide where to stay, travel from Northumberland to East Sussex with us, as we shine a light of 12 English boutique hotels, pubs and cabins we adore. And if you’re after more British travel inspiration, you can always check out Slow Travel Britain.
Images by Daisy Wingate-Saul and Liz Schaffer
Lord Crewe Arms
Lord Crewe Arms, Northumberland
This history-packed, dog-friendly hotel, found in the heart of honey-hued Northumberland town of Blanchard, is as atmospheric as they come. Once the abbot’s lodge of a 12th-century priory, many of the original building’s architectural details remain, from arched stone doorways to flagstone floors. The Lord Crewe hosts a range of seasonal activities including star gazing (Northumberland National Park has been a Dark Sky Park since 2013). Year round you can enjoy afternoon tea by the fire in the original banqueting hall, watched over by armour and shields. It’s also worth whiling away an evening in the Crypt Bar, a vaulted chamber illuminated by candlelight, before you head upstairs to feast in the rustic Bishop’s Dining Room.
Another Place, The Lake, The Lake District
Sitting within 18 acres of National Parkland and offering views of Ullswater from almost every window, each of the 47 bedrooms in this family-friendly hotel has a unique shape and design, dictated by the original Georgian layout (with many spaces featuring vintage furniture, parquet flooring and ornate fireplaces). Book one of their six handcrafted, cedar-scented Shepherd Huts to immerse yourself in the landscape, and enjoy the king-size beds, log burners and fire pits. Daily activities including kayaking, paddleboarding and wild swimming are run from lakeside cabin the Sheep Shed, but for a calmer experience there’s Swim Club, which combines a host of treatment rooms with a 65-foot, glass-enclosed pool.
Wildhive Callow Hall, Peak District
Cocooned within 35 acres of meadows, landscaped gardens and lupin-filled woodland at the southern edge of the Peak District National Park, this hotel celebrates the natural world – which can be admired from rooms in the fabulously decorated Hall (a revamped Victorian country house) or from one of Wildhive’s treehouses. Decor across the property is the work of interior designer Isabella Worsley and is an elegantly eccentric explosion of Pop Art prints, pressed flowers and English objects d’art. And while the interiors may be artistically vibrant, the atmosphere remains remarkably peaceful. Things feel even more sedate when suspended amongst the foliage in a one-bedroom hive or two-bedroom treehouse, where textured timber is embellished with painted floral motifs and breakfast hampers are delivered to your door. Enjoy cocktails in the Hall’s library snug and dinner in the glass-walled Garden Room restaurant, or (if you’re feeling active) hire a bike from the Coach House and tackle one of the walking and cycling trails that begin at Wildhive’s door.
Wildhive Callow Hall
Owner and art dealer Ivor Braka has generously adorned The Gunton with millions of pounds worth of art from his private collection. You’ll spy William Morris curtains, a Damian Hirst in the women’s loo, the skull of a prehistoric elk dug up from a peat bog and a dining room bedecked in Tracy Emin’s neon signs. As Ivor has famously explained, it costs a lot of money to look this cheap. Meals are as fabulous as the art and feature seasonal offerings like asparagus and wild garlic soup alongside staples such as Ivor’s crab pasta, made using crustaceans caught off the neighbouring Cromer Beach.
Much of the menu’s brilliance comes down to its freshness, with venison sourced from the surrounding 1,000-acre deer park, and fruit and vegetables grown in their kitchen garden
Made up of site-specific architectural hideouts nested in deciduous woodland, Kudhva (which is Cornish for hideout) also includes a wood-burning-hot tub, waterfall, restored engine house and abandoned slate quarry. Design enthusiasts will be charmed by the Kudhva cabins themselves – contemporary, tree-house-like structures with a mezzanine sleeping area made for stargazing. This is raw-luxe at its finest and exists because of owner Louise’s desire to ‘make friends with the land’, which she transformed from a wild and forgotten space into this off-grid event-and festival-hosting bolthole.
Kudhva
Nestled beneath a headland with uninterrupted views of the Atlantic’s waves, this family-friendly hotel is made for beach-lovers. Inside, a classic English seaside hotel has been elevated by modern, airy extensions. There is an artful abundance of beach paraphernalia, an on-site surf school, soothing spa, a pool that hovers above the sand and a collection of excellent bars and restaurants – the après-surf culture here is strong. For a room with a jaw-dropping view, book a Beach Loft: a spacious, impeccably designed abode with floor-to-ceiling windows and a perfectly positioned roll-top bath that allows you to watch the retreating tide change the scene entirely. And while it may be tempting to spend your entire getaway at Watergate Bay, make sure you visit Bedruthan Steps, a gorgeous cove along the South West Coast Path.
Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa, Bath
This stately country hotel is found just six miles from historic Bath and surrounded by woodland and fields. There are many reasons to book a stay – the lavish rooms, the 500 acres of listed parkland (home to deer, horses, sculptures and numerous walking paths), the Michelin-starred Restaurant Hywel Jones (that has held its star since 2006) and the spa, which features one of the most picturesque pools in the country. This is old-world England: a hotel elevated by Georgian architecture, an antiques-filled library made for cocktail-sipping, a blooming walled garden and a mile-long entrance lined with 200-year-old lime and beech trees.
Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa
I’m perched on my hotel room’s window seat, looking out over Belgravia’s lush garden squares and white townhouses. I could get used to admiring the world from such great heights… and from such swish surroundings. Think jewel tones, Eames-style furnishings, and acasual Tracey Emin on the wall.
Stay at The Hari if you fancy having arty London on your doorstep. Wonders within walking distance include glitzy Motcomb Street; a host of museums, from the Saatchi and Serpentine Galleries to the design-devoted V&A, which is particularly fun when it’s open late on Friday nights; and postcard-perfect corners such as Ensor Mews, which is great for springtime wisteria spotting.
The Rectory Hotel, The Cotswolds
This charming, character-packed haven is found near historic Malmesbury – a market town that boasts a weekly farmers’ market and England’s oldest abbey. Built from Cotswold limestone, this country hotel began life as the 18th-century home of the All Saints’ Church rector (the church is still reached via a secret door in the garden), and was built with enough bedrooms to accommodate his 14 children. It now comes with decor that is both dapper and homely, as well as a smattering of stone fireplaces and window seats you could lose hours ensconced in. In its grounds you’ll find a lily-strewn baptismal pond, 13th-century dovecote and a heated outdoor pool.
The Rectory Hotel
Lime Wood is a hotel that transports you. The skylight-illuminated bar, all marble and statement fabrics, feels very LA. The scullery, used each morning for breakfast, is decidedly Scottish (as is the on-site smokery), while the jasmine-draped walkways seem perfectly Italian. Add an eclectic array of contemporary art and the Herb House Spa, and you have a setting you can’t really tear yourself away from – no matter how cute the neighbouring ponies might be.
Lime Wood’s star is Hartnett Holder & Co, a dazzling showpiece restaurant from chefs Angela Hartnett and Luke Holder. With Hampshire’s natural larder guiding the Tuscan-meets-New-Forest menu, it’s unlikely two meals here will ever be quite the same.
Lime Wood
Lime Wood
In keeping with the New Forest tradition, food is at the heart of this charming Brockenhurst hotel dedicated to promoting local and home-grown produce. When gathering ingredients from beyond the garden (the domain of the eponymous pigs), the kitchen team aim to source everything from within a 25-mile radius and even employ a full-time forager. The scrumptious results are dished up in the conservatory restaurant, an artful collage of mismatched furniture and retro crockery. Seasonal menu highlights during my stay included a phenomenal gooseberry tart and a raspberry cheesecake whose consistency appeared to defy the laws of physics.
This boutique bolthole is found within a 15th-century, Grade II-listed building that’s been lovingly revamped by Olga and Alex Polizzi. If you fancy meeting this iconic mother-daughter duo, book in for one of The Star’s regular Ramblers Retreats; weekend getaways where you hike over hills with Alex and toast your efforts with wine, cocktails and canapés.
The hotel itself is a stunning mix of old (oak beams, stone floors and antiques) and new (Italian hues, English wallpapers and cloud-like beds), and celebrates Sussex with every detail. There’s an extensive book collection in the library (a cosy spot for afternoon tea), curated by the team at Alfriston cult bookstore Much Ado Books, and original works from Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, founding members of the Bloomsbury Group. Add contemporary artworks, a walled garden and courtyard, a restaurant that fuses Sussex and Mediterranean flavours, and a traditional pub dating back to 1435, and you’ve got a singular setting – a hotel that is part retreat, part village meeting place.
The Star
Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa
Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa
