THE SEASIDE PUB

The Rose, Deal, Kent

THE TOWN OF DEAL, just 16 kilometres from the white cliffs of Dover, is one of a handful of Kentish seaside resorts that are once again becoming fashionable destinations for Londoners to move to. Creative entrepreneurs are quitting the capital in favour of the bracing sea air, advantageous property prices, and growing arts scene; weekend travellers have followed close behind. And with a fast train to the area now departing from London’s

St. Pancras, visitors can be skimming pebbles on the English Channel within an hour. So one frosty fall weekend, my family and I set off for Deal, eager to experience the place for ourselves.

Our lodgings summed up the change this area has recently undergone: until our hotel, the Rose, closed for renovations in 2016, it was one

of the most notorious ‘boozers’ in Kent. The bar used to open at 8 am and had a reputation for brawls. Following last year’s relaunch, however, mornings find guests tucking into house-made granola and coffee from trendy roasters Climpson & Sons. Christopher Hicks, the new co-owner, has family roots in the pub business—his great-grandfather ran Thompson & Son brewery, which once owned 130 pubs across Kent. A former hedge-fund analyst, Hicks and his wife, Alex Bagner, a former design editor at Wallpaper magazine, spent nine months renovating the pub and creating eight beautiful bedrooms on the floors above, aiming to attract locals and out-of-towners alike.

The decor and feel are clearly the work of someone with a trained eye for contemporary design; there’s an abundance of corduroy and velvet, soothing, low lighting, and huge potted plants. The ground floor has been divided into a restaurant—where old wood panelling has been polished up and restored and original banquettes reupholstered—and a bar area with 1960s sofas and armchairs and a wood-burning stove. Chef Rachel O’Sullivan, formerly of the London restaurants Polpo and Towpath Café, presides over a short, artful menu that ticks all the boxes: local, seasonal, organic.

Behind a heavy velvet curtain, a narrow staircase leads up to the bedrooms. Ours immediately delighted my husband and children with its quirky, thoughtful touches—a record player and a cool selection of discs (Joni Mitchell and the Beach Boys), a jar of penny sweets, and a shelf of carefully chosen vintage books. Each bedroom has a different colour scheme. In ours, a vast burnt-orange headboard was offset by walls painted a deep sea green, while a roll-top bathtub was hidden behind sliding panel doors.

I was a little concerned that we might be in for a sleepless night—we were directly above the bar, after all, and overlooked the main street. But the double-paned windows and high-threadcount sheets worked their magic—though not even these could quite drown out the cries of the seagulls early the next morning, announcing that it was time for breakfast and a walk on the beach. Doubles from ` 9,038; therosedeal.com.

The lobby of the Rose,a newly renovated pub and hotel in the Kentish town of Deal.Below: The building’sfaçade.