discoverbritainmag.com 25ECCENTRIC HOTELScorkscrew in reception. On the wall of the foyer bar
is a huge t rompe l’oeil painting depicting the so-called
Judgment of Paris, a 1976 blind wine tasting in which
Californian wines shocked the world by triumphing
over the French. All the real-life wine experts are clearly
stunned, and Sir Peter has cheekily had himself painted
in to one side of the event (though he was not present).
In the large, circular dining room, waiters serve a tasting
menu with wine provided in black glasses so you can’t
see the colour: a real challenge. This is a beautiful hotel
conceived by a wealthy man keen to share his obsession.
In Scotland, The Witchery is a 16th-century house
just outside the gates of Edinburgh Castle. For more
than 40 years, owner James Thomson has amalgamated ➤repurposing old buildings as
hotels across Britain, including
a Greek revival church in Glasgow,
a cooperative warehouse in
Newcastle, and a former Royal
Mail sorting office in Birmingham.
As a classic Victorian slammer,
Britain’s only former prison hotel
once featured in both the 1969 film The Italian Job and
the popular British TV comedy Porridge. Its distinctive
layout has hardly been changed but thankfully the hotel’s
bedrooms are more spacious, given they consist of
three cells put together. One cell remains as it was,
an alarmingly pokey reminder that three criminals
would have once shared that space.
Another Victorian oddity turned into a hotel is
Spitbank. This was one of Lord Palmerston’s “follies”.
After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the British still
did not trust the French and so Palmerston, the Prime
Minister at the time, ordered a large number of new
fortresses to guard the south coast of England and its
harbours. Spitbank was one of four forts constructed
in the sea off Portsmouth Harbour in Hampshire.
It was circular in form and dramatically functional
in appearance, yet none of Lord Palmerston’s follies
ever saw action and they were eventually sold off to
developers in the 1980s. By 2012, Spitbank had been
converted into a nine-suite luxury hotel. Today it can
only be accessed by a ferry that moors below its original
seagate. Meals are taken in the officers’ mess, with
drinks served in a brick cellar where munitions were
once stored. For modern comfort, a most un-Victorian
jacuzzi has been constructed on the roof.
A more traditional and elegant hotel is Berkshire’s
Vineyard, which was acquired by the founder of the
Classic FM station, Sir Peter Michael, to house his wine
collection. To enter, you pass over a glass floor, below
which are wine cellars containing some 30,000 bottles.
The motto of the hotel is “eat, sleep, and drink wine”
and all the bedrooms are named after favourite vintages
(with a special bottle selected for each guest to taste on
arrival). Wine imagery is everywhere, including a six-footClockwise from
top left: Ox ford’s
Malmaison is
housed in a former
prison; the Admiral
Suite at Spitbank
Fort; aerial shot of
Spitbank Fort
in The Solent020-026_DB_Eccentric Hotels_AprMay20.indd 25 25/02/2020 14:14discoverbritainmag.com 25ECCENTRIC HOTELScorkscrew in reception. On the wall of the foyer bar
is a huge t rompe l’oeil painting depicting the so-called
Judgment of Paris, a 1976 blind wine tasting in which
Californian wines shocked the world by triumphing
over the French. All the real-life wine experts are clearly
stunned, and Sir Peter has cheekily had himself painted
in to one side of the event (though he was not present).
In the large, circular dining room, waiters serve a tasting
menu with wine provided in black glasses so you can’t
see the colour: a real challenge. This is a beautiful hotel
conceived by a wealthy man keen to share his obsession.
In Scotland, The Witchery is a 16th-century house
just outside the gates of Edinburgh Castle. For more
than 40 years, owner James Thomson has amalgamated ➤repurposing old buildings as
hotels across Britain, including
a Greek revival church in Glasgow,
a cooperative warehouse in
Newcastle, and a former Royal
Mail sorting office in Birmingham.
As a classic Victorian slammer,
Britain’s only former prison hotel
once featured in both the 1969 film The Italian Job and
the popular British TV comedy Porridge. Its distinctive
layout has hardly been changed but thankfully the hotel’s
bedrooms are more spacious, given they consist of
three cells put together. One cell remains as it was,
an alarmingly pokey reminder that three criminals
would have once shared that space.
Another Victorian oddity turned into a hotel is
Spitbank. This was one of Lord Palmerston’s “follies”.
After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the British still
did not trust the French and so Palmerston, the Prime
Minister at the time, ordered a large number of new
fortresses to guard the south coast of England and its
harbours. Spitbank was one of four forts constructed
in the sea off Portsmouth Harbour in Hampshire.
It was circular in form and dramatically functional
in appearance, yet none of Lord Palmerston’s follies
ever saw action and they were eventually sold off to
developers in the 1980s. By 2012, Spitbank had been
converted into a nine-suite luxury hotel. Today it can
only be accessed by a ferry that moors below its original
seagate. Meals are taken in the officers’ mess, with
drinks served in a brick cellar where munitions were
once stored. For modern comfort, a most un-Victorian
jacuzzi has been constructed on the roof.
A more traditional and elegant hotel is Berkshire’s
Vineyard, which was acquired by the founder of the
Classic FM station, Sir Peter Michael, to house his wine
collection. To enter, you pass over a glass floor, below
which are wine cellars containing some 30,000 bottles.
The motto of the hotel is “eat, sleep, and drink wine”
and all the bedrooms are named after favourite vintages
(with a special bottle selected for each guest to taste on
arrival). Wine imagery is everywhere, including a six-foot
Clockwise from
top left: Ox ford’s
Malmaison is
housed in a former
prison; the Admiral
Suite at Spitbank
Fort; aerial shot of
Spitbank Fort
in The Solent