The Place
Our series editor Fiona Duncan reports: It’s a landmark Georgian building opposite the entrance to Wilton House, one of Inigo Jones’s most famous houses, seat of the Herbert family, Earls of Pembroke. The building has had several uses, among them a tax office and a Second World War officers’ mess, but is now one of the Hillbrooke collection of country estate hotels – see also The Master Builder’s at Bucklers Hard (on this site).
The interior’s theme is Victorian: 19thC prints, brass rails hung with short cafe-style curtains; heavily embossed wallpaper. A solidly attractive 18thC staircase climbs to the Georgian blue Assembly Room on the first floor, popular for functions.
The bedrooms are often wittily decorated following Victorian and Georgian themes with plenty of charming quirks such as plays on their names – ‘Florence’ works especially well. We particularly enjoyed The Orangery – small but with lovely colours (tangerine William Morris style wallpaper and an apricot silk bed throw); and Queen’s Bedchamber with its gold and cream colour scheme.
Back downstairs for a drink after dinner – relax in the sitting room, an authentic replica of an 18thC print room, or in the bar, which like the dining room is dark but atmospheric. The food is well above what you’d expect.