HOTEL REVIEW


a series of sitting rooms, library, two restaurants, bar, cellar and billiard room (with retractable table so the space can be converted into a private dining room). Charles Morris, whose previous work includes the Orchard Room at Highgrove, designed the additional buildings which include a further eleven suites and two guestrooms. Throughout, there’s a genuine sense of money – a rumoured £30m – having been spent to get things right. Previously a hotel called Parkhill, the site was bought by Ineos founder and entrepreneur Jim Ratcliffe in 1999. Renovation began in 2004, Hotel du Vin founder Robin Hutson was brought in at the beginning of 2009, and the hotel welcomed its first guests in early 2010, with Jamie Cullum and Sophie Dahl celebrating their wedding here (yes, he did tickle the old ivories).


Pitching itself somewhere in between nearby Chewton Glen and Babington House (both hotels in which Hutson was involved, as Managing Director of the former, and Chairman of the latter), Lime Wood ticks all the right country house hotel boxes, while simultaneously adding a modern, metropolitan vibe. The main staircase epitomises this timeless-with-a-twist vibe. There may be antique oil paintings on the walls, but there’s also a bold contemporary sculpture in the centre of the room and a metal oak-leaf chandelier hanging above. Double doors lead on to the Courtyard, an


atrium with a retractable glass roof. Turn left and you arrive at the drawing room, with its huge bay window looking onto soaring cypress trees, one of a series of interconnected rooms to lounge in reading the paper – all with


090 JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2011 WWW.SLEEPERMAGAZINE.COM


OPPOSITE PAGE: The Drawing Room has a lilac colour palette with a mood of discrete opulence. Local materials such as ash and stone have been teamed with simple, subtle colour shades reflecting the estate’s landscape ABOVE: Bathrooms feature personally sourced marble from Italy with traditional nickel fittings for a chic, classical feel


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