Aside from soon-to-be-plugged-ferociously Christmas (*shudder*), the final weekend of August is also the final bank holiday of 2015. That’s right, the heat is on to squeeze the absolute most out of this glorious, short occasion. At Square Meal, that's our call to eat and throw in a bit of travel, so without further delay (unless you take a train, perhaps), here are a selection of the newest, finest and most flavoursome hotels across the UK. Book quickly before these places fill up – or treat yourself to an autumn mini-break.
Click here for our recently published UK top 100 restaurants 2015 to turn your mini-break into full-tilt culinary expedition.
St Mary’s Inn, Northumberland
For starters: Newcastle’s respected Jesmond Dene team has turned a former hospital near Morpeth into the very essence of a modern-rustic pub-with-rooms: think iron bedheads designed by a Scottish Borders blacksmith, antique wardrobes and desks, bang up-to-date bathrooms and soft carpets to curl your toes into. Extra beds for kids and dogs can easily be accommodated.
Mains and more: The kitchen is the domain of Michael Penaluna, who is also the executive chef at country pile Jesmond Dene House, further south towards Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Expect a choice of Brit classics: North Sea battered cod and chips, hot roast beer stottie sandwiches with St Mary’s Ale gravy, or a list of grilled meats from the fires of Northumberland lumpwood charcoal. There’s also an afternoon tea menu and, of course, strapping Sunday lunches.
Sides: Explore the windswept Northumberland coast – fairy-tale Bamburgh Castle; mystical Lindisfarne; crab sandwiches and seal watching – it’s like north Norfolk without the smugness. You’re in no-nonsense Border country here: pull on your walking boots for Hadrian’s Wall and saddle up for mountain biking in the Kielder Water & Forest Park, where you can be dazzled by stars in the darkest skies in England. Or whizz down the A1 for Newcastle-Gateshead’s cosmopolitan quayside.
Bill, please: Double rooms from £90 per night.
Book: 01670 293293
Hotel Gotham, Manchester
For starters: Holy cow! What would Gotham’s Caped Crusader make of these boudoirs trimmed with velvet and faux fur in a fruits-of-the-forest palette? Catwoman would lap it up. The seven floors of this Edwin Lutyens-designed building (‘the King of King Street’) have been transformed into a 60-room hotel, with money bag-style laundry bags, lights fashioned from leather satchels and acres of dark polished wood, all referencing its former life as a bank.
Mains and more: Top-floor members’ bar Club Brass is also open to hotel residents and has enough gold tiling to make a Mayfair oligarch blush. Honey restaurant has rooftop views and a strong retro flavour with its prawn cocktails, coq au vin and veg lasagne, but don’t neglect Manchester’s booming restaurant scene: Simon Rogan’s The French, for example. Nurse a hangover over the ‘Metropolis breakfast’ and start the day as Superman.
Sides: Take in some high culture at the spectacularly revamped Whitworth Art Gallery or enjoy the novelty of having Selfridges and Harvey Nichols over the road from one another.
Bill, please: Double rooms over the bank holiday weekend from £280 per night.
Book: 0843 178 7188
Kings Head, Gloucestershire
For starters: This 13th-century coaching inn on Cirencester’s market place re-opened last autumn, from the crack team behind Berkshire’s Vineyard at Stockcross. Cool, neutral colours suit the town’s Farrow & Ball vibe. Flop around in a thick cotton robe lapping up the in-room indulgences before tootling down to the even newer spa, complete with sauna, steam room and hot tub.
Mains and more: A Zuma-style robata grill is the kitchen’s pride and joy. Bookend your steaks, burgers and chargrilled chicken with scallops with cauliflower and bone marrow, and peanut butter brûlée. Finish with a post-prandial snifter from the bar’s extensive selection of gins.
Sides: Soak up the honey-toned gorgeousness of streets still intact from Cirencester’s medieval heyday. Pack your swimming costume for the elegant lido, fed by spring water. Appetite worked up, graze around the numerous delis, pop into the Twelve Bells for a pint of Bells Bitter brewed on-site, and pick up some provisions from the Chesterton Farm Shop on the drive home… and maybe some designer bargains if you detour to Swindon’s McArthur Glen outlet village.
Bill, please: Double rooms from £160 for Friday night.
Book: 01285 700900
Albion House, Kent
For starters: Look familiar? This Regency pile on Ramsgate’s East Cliff recently starred in Channel 4’s The Hotel Inspector, though it’s entertained many a famous face – not least a young Queen Victoria, who once recuperated here. Glide up the sweeping staircase for a wallow in your Carrara marble bathtub, or take a peek through your shutters and you might just glimpse the French coast on the horizon (12 of the 14 rooms have sea views).
Mains and more: Start with cocktails in the ground-floor Town Bar ahead of harissa-marinated rump of lamb or spiced sea bass in the Dining Room, all razor-sharp napery and navy-on-white elegance.
Sides: Owners Ben and Emma are a font of local knowledge. Hit the blue-flagged beach at Ramsgate or neighbouring Broadstairs and Margate, where you can also channel your inner Tracy Emin at the Turner Contemporary gallery before browsing antiques at the legendary Scott’s market. Back in Ramsgate, it’s two scoops of retro at the 1950s Sorbetto ice-cream parlour, fish and chips from Peter’s Fish Factory and a sunset the Isle of Thanet is famous for.
Bill, please: Double rooms with continental breakfast from £210 for Sunday night.
Book: 01843 606630
The Crescent Turner, Kent
For starters: Inspired by Timothy Spall’s turn in Mr Turner but find the artist’s bolthole of Margate a bit end-of-the-pier? Head to Whitstable instead and ask for one of this boutique hotel’s rooms overlooking the oyster beds immortalised in oil by the Victorian painter, or stay in the hotel’s Sundowner hut (above) on the sandy beach.
Mains and more: Local boy Mark Kember cooks the kind of pretty-as-a-picture Brit fare that would have made Mr Turner smile: fillet of beef with potato fondant, smoked garlic and mushroom purée, say. Eat like an eminent Victorian and take afternoon tea, too, with homemade scones and local berry jams, and don’t leave town without downing a dozen Whitstable natives at the legendary Wheelers Oyster Bar (est. 1856).
Sides: Wander down to the working harbour through quaint passageways with names like Squeeze Gut Alley. Peruse the estate agents’ windows and dream of swapping your Hackney two-bedder for a seaside cottage. Take a turn around the gardens of 18th-century Whitstable Castle before making like a modern-day pilgrim, cycling the Crab & Winkle Way to Canterbury.
Bill, please: Double rooms from £135 per night.
Book: 01227 263506
St Mawes Hotel, Cornwall
For starters: Ahoy there! Hum a sea shanty as you gaze through your sash window overlooking St Mawes Harbour (post-war England’s answer to St Tropez) at this nautical-but-nice new gaff from former Aston Martin chairman-turned-hotelier David Richards and wife Karen, the couple behind the nearby Idle Rocks. Three shipshape bedrooms overlook the water (ask for the one with a bath if you like a soak); three more in an annex include a family room.
Mains and more: Drink a pint of St Austell’s Tribute Ale or a cocktail on the terrace then head inside to graze on ‘Cornish tapas’ (including smoked fish, chilli squid, local charcuterie). Or you can tuck into a pot of mussels, the catch of the day or instant local favourite: pizza from a wood oven.
Sides: Get out on the water for paddleboarding, kayaking and zipping about in a motorboat; parade the battlements of 16th-century St Mawes Castle; laze on the beaches of the Roseland Peninsula, and swing by picture-postcard villages such as Portloe.
Bill, please: Double rooms (for a minimum of two nights) from £325 per night.
Book: 01326 270170
This article was published 12 August 2015