Square Meal Lifestyle

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 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 £135 per night.

CONTACT: 01285 700900; kingshead-hotel.co.uk

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 MORE: Chef Shaun Hurrell is ex-Marcus Wareing and

Fergus Henderson. Good pub grub from great local ingredients

includes mince and dumplings, beer-battered fish and chips, and

maple-glazed pork chop, washed down with house brew St Mary's

Ale. Best of all: Craster kippers for breakfast.

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 NewcastleGateshead's

cosmopolitan quayside.

BILL, PLEASE: Double rooms from £90 per night.

CONTACT: 01670 293293; stmarysinn.co.uk

squaremeal.co.uk | 151

travel

The Bear, Powys

FOR STARTERS: Ex-human rights worker David Gibbon turned

his back on London and moved back to his roots to open this

three-room BB in a 16th-century

coaching inn in the centre of

bookworms' heaven Hay-on-Wye.

Expect all the metropolitan modcons

of multimedia TVs, free Wi-Fi

and wood-burning stoves.

MAINS MORE: Wake up to locally

sourced breakfasts, served in a walled

garden in summer: crusty loaves from

Jones the baker at the end of the road;

sausages and bacon from Gibbons

butchers round the corner; and

homemade veggie tarts, gooey with

the local Little Hereford cheese. Dine at St John's Place, in Hay's

old medieval parish hall, where David says that chef/proprietor

Julia's menus 'are always excitingly different and experimental':

think John Dory with squid, cauliflower, sorrel and cider.

SIDES: Had your fill of second-hand books? Poke among the

antiques and interior shops (the retro Old Electric Shop hosts

pop-up cocktail bars); stride along Offa's Dyke for views from Hay

Bluff; learn to canoe or meander on foot along the river bank.

BILL, PLEASE: From £75 a night for a small double bedroom

with a private bathroom.

CONTACT: 01497 821302; thebearhay.com

three-room BB in a 16th-century

coaching inn in the centre of

bookworms' heaven Hay-on-Wye.

Expect all the metropolitan modcons

of multimedia TVs, free Wi-Fi

and wood-burning stoves.

MAINS MORE:

sourced breakfasts, served in a walled

Jones the baker at the end of the road;

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 on the sandy beach.

MAINS 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 £110 per night.

CONTACT: 01227 263506; bespokehotels.com/crescentturnerhotel