Nestled inside Churn Valley – a inexperienced swathe deep within the coronary heart of the Cotswolds that’s virtually surreal in its bucolic fantasy of the English countryside – Cowley Manor has been a boutique lodge since a minimum of the flip of the millennium, however it’s taken Experimental Group to shake issues up at this 300-plus-year-old country-house property.
Cowley Manor Experimental
(Picture credit score: Images by Mr Tripper)
After the worldwide hospitality group took over the Italianate-style manse final yr, it launched into an lively, formidable restoration challenge led by London-based architects, De Matos Ryan. For starters, the seductive, tactile mood-board of Paris-based inside designer Dorothée Meilichzon’s skilfully pairs whimsical touches – reminiscent of delicate ornamental nods to Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll rumoured to be a frequent customer, by the use of checkerboard-patterned rugs and rabbit head door knocks, with giant home windows that body the Arcadian gardens.
(Picture credit score: Images by Mr Tripper)
(Picture credit score: Images by Mr Tripper)
The rehabilitation of the manor continues with the latest creation of a brand new pavilion that provides 5 high-ceilinged visitor rooms. Cued by the supplies and design of the principle home, De Matos Ryan have paired regionally quarried Cotswold stone with UK-grown Douglas Fir, and maple to create a garden-wrapped wing that pretty breathes in simpatico with tall arched doorways and expansive terraces. Non-public and aside, but organically fused to the principle home, the pavilion, the architects say, reads ‘as a secondary indifferent constructing quantity that’s respectful of its context’.
(Picture credit score: Images by Mr Tripper)
(Picture credit score: Images by Mr Tripper)
(Picture credit score: Images by Mr Tripper)
(Picture credit score: Images by Mr Tripper)
Equally contextual is the restaurant the place head chef Jackson Boxer (Notting Hill’s Orasay and Selfridges’ Jackson Boxer on the Nook) serves up a regionally sourced harvest in a grand eating room lined with vintage wooden wall panels, empire ceiling mouldings and playful tables that appear to be modular chess items. On the menu are resolutely British fare and Gloucestershire produce reminiscent of Hereford sirloin served up with smoked bone marrow, Cornish crab, smoked honey and trout.
(Picture credit score: Images by Mr Tripper)
Cowley Manor Experimental is situated at Cowley, Cheltenham GL53 9NL, cowleymanorexperimental.com
Supply: Wallpaper
