Charlton House in Somerset, Great Britain

Charlton House in Somerset - Great Britain

Roger and Morrty Saul, the owners of Charlton House, know a lot about life in the English countryside. They even built a business empire on it. Mulberry's leather and fashion items bring together everything that appeals to us in the English art of living. Sober but refined, luxurious without being flashy, it is a style that emphasizes comfort, quality of materials, aesthetics and a certain refinement. Think of the Jaguar, the Aston Martin, Savile Row (tailor), Georgian architecture, shoemakers: all evocative of elegance and prestige, without prejudice to comfort. It is on this quiet quality that the Sauls based the design and manufacture of their fashion and travel goods. Then, inevitably, with the growing interest in interior design, they came to apply this concept to the home.
Elizabethan mansion located in Shepton Mallet in Somerset, Charlton House is a 3D advertisement for the Mulberry range, a lavish display case in English classic and romantic style. The property itself is first recorded in the Domesday Book (*), in the XNUMXth century. Since then, it has, of course, been the subject of many additions and restructurings: the porch is Victorian, the Georgian facade, the Elizabethan north facade while the wall of the enclosure is probably contemporary with Henry III. However, the places, their history and their beauty, are not the only everything about Charlton House. The main, the most powerful, lies in its gastronomy, not so long ago, there would have been some ridiculousness in justifying a trip to the English countryside for the sole pleasure of the table-The most fanatic of Anglophiles would have had it's hard to name a single rural address capable of competing with the culinary quality and invention of its French equivalents. But everything is changing in the English countryside. When it comes to dining out, London is no longer the disabled cousin of Paris and this gastronomic development has spread much further. Charlton House is proof of this, which has been awarded a Michelin star. As this guide remains a French publication, it is fair to think that such an honor represents a much more remarkable success in England.

But what is so extraordinary about this cuisine? First, its excellence in everything. For once, such lively attention and such great inventiveness are brought to breakfast, lunch and dinner. And then there's chef Steve Yates, trained by Adam Fellows, a former chef of the Roux brothers in London. Charlton House has become the place in England where you eat the best fish. Red mullet with small artichokes and white onions is the absolute antithesis of fatty fish and chips. Among these gastronomic pleasures, one can enjoy the still unspoiled Somerset countryside. There is, in Charlton, a tennis court, an enclosed swimming pool and, as it should be in an English estate, a wonderful garden with orchards, waterfalls, clipped trees, lawns and terraces for afternoon tea. The historic towns of Bath and Wells are easily accessible during the day. But, if the weather is raining, staying indoors is not a punishment. Charlton, who could be the hotel version of Shakespeare in Love, perfectly illustrates the current fashion of Elizabethan theater. He admits that those large four-poster beds, all those velvets and embroidered silks, are ultimately rather sexy. The mix of real Isabethan and Tudor antiques with plush fabrics in sumptuous and deep colors creates a romantic atmosphere that arguably has less to do with Elizabethan reality than with our fantasies, but we risk nothing by trying the experience. After all, it worked for Gwyneth Paltrow, why not for Charlton House?

(*) The Domesday Book (or simply Domesday), in French Book of the Last Judgment, is the recording of the great inventory of England completed in 1086, carried out for William the Conqueror, the equivalent of a national census today.

Address: Charlton House, Shepton Malet, near Bath Somerset- BA4 4PR - Great Britain

Telephone: +44 344 248 3830

Website : https://www.bannatyne.co.uk/hotel