The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Head south to discover the new Bruton
The South Downs have a boutique scene to rival the Somerset idyll, says Jane Anderson
There’s a genteel buzz rippling over the ancient chalky undulations of the South Downs. Britain’s newest national park is in the midst of a zeitgeist moment, with a flurry of movers and shakers taking up the baton left by Virginia Woolf and her Bloomsbury Group sister Vanessa Bell a century ago.
Just as a wave of high-profile folk gravitated to the Somerset idyll of Bruton – namely fashion designer Stella McCartney, artist and filmmaker Sam Taylor-Johnson and her actor husband Aaron, not to mention art darlings Hauser & Wirth – so the spotlight is turning to the similarly bucolic South Downs.
The medieval market town of Lewes, gateway to the Downs, has long attracted polite disrupters, most recently Vampire’s Wife founder Susie Cave. She first came with her family to Bray Castle and Pells outdoor swimming pool, the oldest freshwater lido in the UK, and was gradually seduced by the history of witches and pagan rituals. Cave operates her fashion empire HQ from a former Sunday school house by the River Ouse, complete with bell tower and dovecote.
Just outside Lewes, near Firle, Vanessa Bell famously created a Bloomsbury Group outpost in 1916 at Charleston (01323 811626; charleston. org.uk), a former down-at-heel B&B, transformed into a colourful home and walled garden. A century ago her intention was to bring art off the gallery walls and into everyday life. Today, art is going firmly back on the wall at Charleston in three impressive new galleries in converted barns beside the house.
Recently opened is a recreation of Duncan Grant’s first exhibition from 1920 and new work from Brooklynbased artist Tunji Adeniyi-Jones. Visitors can dine in the new Threshing Barn and catch an al-fresco talk, musical performance or play in the Yard, a new performance space; Helena Bonham Carter and Tobias Menzies recently performed local writer Holly Dawson’s scripting of Lydia Lopokova and John Maynard Keynes’s love story through their edited letters.
And the South Downs hotel scene is at last snapping at the heels of Bruton’s At the Chapel and Number One Bruton, with legendary hotelier Olga Polizzi shaking things up out east. The Star in Alfriston (01323 870495; thepolizzicollection.com) is the third in her Polizzi Collection, and the first hotel she has created with her daughter Alex, Channel 5’s Hotel Inspector.
More than ever, the Polizzis have leant on local talent to bring the place alive, from antiques supplied by Diana Kelly Interiors to a library curated by Much Ado Books. Even the floor in the restaurant was painstakingly handpainted by Amanda Lawrence, owner of arts and curiosities gallery Objet Trouvé just a few doors down.
If one internationally renowned hotelier wasn’t enough, down on the coast at Bexhill-on-Sea Grace Leo, a woman responsible for upscale resorts in exotic destinations including Mustique and St Jean-Cap-Ferrat, recently acquired the Cooden Beach Hotel (coodenbeachhotel.co.uk). This tired but landmark 1920s building with 41 rooms and a beachfront restaurant is undergoing a major renovation for reopening in spring 2022 as the Relais Cooden Beach. The aim is to attract Londoners to the Sussex Riviera just as New Yorkers head to the Hamptons – though locals may raise an eyebrow at
ambition to raise Bexhill to such lofty heights.
Even sleepy old Eastbourne is having a moment with its trendy Towner Art Gallery (01323 434670; townereastbourne.org.uk) taking part in this year’s England’s Creative Coast initiative (englandscreativecoast.com), and the opening of Volt (01323 731600; volteast bourne.org.uk), a new contemporary art gallery.
Port (01323 438526; porthotel.co.uk) is a new 19-bedroom boutique hotel and restaurant housed in a smart row of black town houses on the Eastbourne seafront with modern, muted interiors created by designer Imraan Ismail. Think Scandinavian furniture and lighting, terrazzo tiles, cork floors, poured concrete sinks and local Ditchling Gin behind the fluted wood bar.
With all this activity, it is no coincidence that Robin Hutson, owner of the much-lauded Pig hotel group (0345 225 9494; thepighotel.com), has chosen the West Sussex village of Madehurst for its eighth property. The Pig – in the South Downs opened last month, and when rooms went on sale it sold 2,000 in 48 hours. Hutson says: “We live in Winthe chester, and it always surprised me that there wasn’t more going on [hospitality-wise] in the South Downs. There are a couple of old established hotels like Amberley Castle and Bailiffscourt, but it hasn’t really changed very much for decades despite there being a lot to do nearby, including yachting and theatre at Chichester and all those wonderful Sussex villages of Petworth, Pulborough and Midhurst, which are fabulous for antiquing.”
As well as a good-sized kitchen garden, the Pig has an additional southfacing 25 acres right in front of the house, allowing Hutson to realise his ambition to plant a vineyard.
The chalky soil of the South Downs and its increasingly warmer climate have created similar conditions to that of the Champagne region, turning the viticulture spotlight on Sussex. At the newly opened Featherdown Farm Battle Vineyard (01420 80804; featherdown.co.uk), guests can combine glamping with wine tasting hosted by Alison and Neil Mortimer who grow their own vines in the valley opposite the three luxury safari-style tents.
A more ambitious proposition is the Rathfinny Wine Estate (01323 870022; rathfinnyestate.com) owned by Sarah and Mark Driver. Climbing up through row upon row of south-facing vines, you could be forgiven for thinking that this is more Napa than Cuckmere Valley, which it overlooks.
One of the UK’s first purpose-built vineyards, Rathfinny was designed by East Sussex architect Martin Swatton. Here you can marvel at gravity-powered presses, towering metal containers that can store four million bottles, and dine on local produce-driven dishes at the Tasting Room Restaurant and Cellar Door.
Down the hill at Rathfinny’s Flint Barns, 10 new en-suite bedrooms have been created in a sturdy Sussex barn with a Dining Room restaurant and gourmet picnic boxes to feast on outside, accompanied by a flute of something light and bubbly. Those in the know are raising a glass to the genteel happenings in the South Downs to rival its Somerset cousin. One can only surmise whether Virginia and Vanessa would have approved.
Rooms at the Star cost from £190, including breakfast; rooms at the Pig – in the South Downs start at £165, not including breakfast