26 discoverbritainmag.comECCENTRIC HOTELSTop to bottom:
The Heriot Suite
at The Witchery;
Hotel Portmeirion’s
outdoor pool;
Langar Hall near
Nottinghama number of buildings to create this
rambling hotel, but it is the louche,
faux-Victorian design of each
bedroom that makes The Witchery
unique. This is decor so far over the
top it’s an artform in its own right:
candelabras jostle with roll-top baths,
along with exotic statues, tapestried
walls, large red leather armchairs
and theatrical swags. Thomson
continually scours auction rooms
and when he has enough eccentric
heritage items, he creates another
room. With just eight bedrooms
for now, The Witchery is a triumph
of panache over good taste.
At the Portmeirion village
on the coast of North Wales, the
highly eccentric architect Sir Clough
Williams Ellis created a “home for
distressed buildings” in the 1920s
and 30s. Sir Clough, who hated
modernism and brutalism, bought up
bits of old buildings that were being
demolished and reassembled them
as houses and cottages in his fantasy
village. At the centre of the village
is Clough’s 14-bedroom hotel with
an enormous Italianate fireplace,
a mirrored drawing room that looks
18th century, and a white spherical
chair in the reception that was used
in The Prisoner TV series, which
was shot in the village in 1966. In his
typically eccentric fashion, Clough
built a concrete boat on the quayside
outside the hotel that remains in
place today. He named the faux boat,
Amis Reunis, although he insisted
the name meant nothing.
Bringing our story up to
date, in the countryside outside
Nottingham, a woman named
Imogen “Imo” Skirving had a dream
in which she was told to turn her
family home into a hotel. The year was 1983 and Imo
had no experience as a hotelier, but she threw herself
into decorating Langar Hall and being hospitable.
The gamble paid off, even though the hotel’s design is
eccentric to say the least: portraits of Imo are everywhere;
Doric columns rescued from her grandmother’s home
hold up the dining room ceiling; the bar has stools were
originally tall shoe-shine chairs; and the lavatories are
full of explicit nudes drawn by her brother.
When Imo found that Admiral Lord Howe was buried
in the adjacent churchyard, she inaugurated an annual
celebration of his most famous victory, which involves
pouring some Champagne over his grave – and drinking
the rest. Imo sadly died in 2016 but her granddaughter,
Lila, now runs Langar Hall in her eccentric style. n020-026_DB_Eccentric Hotels_AprMay20.indd 26 25/02/2020 14:1526 discoverbritainmag.com
Top to bottom:
The Heriot Suite
at The Witchery;
Hotel Portmeirion’s
outdoor pool;
Langar Hall near
Nottinghama number of buildings to create this
rambling hotel, but it is the louche,
faux-Victorian design of each
bedroom that makes The Witchery
unique. This is decor so far over the
top it’s an artform in its own right:
candelabras jostle with roll-top baths,
along with exotic statues, tapestried
walls, large red leather armchairs
and theatrical swags. Thomson
continually scours auction rooms
and when he has enough eccentric
heritage items, he creates another
room. With just eight bedrooms
for now, The Witchery is a triumph
of panache over good taste.
At the Portmeirion village
on the coast of North Wales, the
highly eccentric architect Sir Clough
Williams Ellis created a “home for
distressed buildings” in the 1920s
and 30s. Sir Clough, who hated
modernism and brutalism, bought up
bits of old buildings that were being
demolished and reassembled them
as houses and cottages in his fantasy
village. At the centre of the village
is Clough’s 14-bedroom hotel with
an enormous Italianate fireplace,
a mirrored drawing room that looks
18th century, and a white spherical
chair in the reception that was used
in The Prisoner TV series, which
was shot in the village in 1966. In his
typically eccentric fashion, Clough
built a concrete boat on the quayside
outside the hotel that remains in
place today. He named the faux boat,
Amis Reunis, although he insisted
the name meant nothing.
Bringing our story up to
date, in the countryside outside
Nottingham, a woman named
Imogen “Imo” Skirving had a dream
in which she was told to turn her
family home into a hotel. The year was 1983 and Imo
had no experience as a hotelier, but she threw herself
into decorating Langar Hall and being hospitable.
The gamble paid off, even though the hotel’s design is
eccentric to say the least: portraits of Imo are everywhere;
Doric columns rescued from her grandmother’s home
hold up the dining room ceiling; the bar has stools were
originally tall shoe-shine chairs; and the lavatories are
full of explicit nudes drawn by her brother.
When Imo found that Admiral Lord Howe was buried
in the adjacent churchyard, she inaugurated an annual
celebration of his most famous victory, which involves
pouring some Champagne over his grave – and drinking
the rest. Imo sadly died in 2016 but her granddaughter,
Lila, now runs Langar Hall in her eccentric style. n