Hope House
Style Antique-filled ancestral seat
Setting Well-heeled Woodstock
Historic Hope House hotel in Oxfordshire has been in the family for over 300 years, and its three refined rooms are now open to the public. Luxury in this classical British home comes with just-ask service, silky linen and a whole lot of heritage.
Need to know
- Rooms Three suites.
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Rates
Double rooms from $383.80 (£245), excluding tax at 20 per cent.
Prices have been converted from the hotel's local currency (£245), via XE.com, using today's exchange rate.
- More details Rates include full English breakfast and tax.
- Facilities Library of DVDs and books, parking and free WiFi throughout. In rooms, flatscreen TV, CD/DVD player, iPod dock, minibar and Bulgari and Cotswold Caress bath products.
- Check-out 11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 2pm.
- Children This hotel is better suited to couples - leave the children at home!
- Also In-room beauty treatments can be arranged on request.
Food and drink at Hope House
- Hotel restaurant The Vanbrugh restaurant is where breakfast is served: a generous spread all sourced from local suppliers and dished up on Royal Doulton china. If there’s a group of you (between six and 10), book the place out exclusively two weeks beforehand for a seven-course tasting menu with six wines from the cellar and a brandy for £195 a head.
- Dress code Prim and proper like lord and lady of the manor.
- Top table Close to the bay window to watch the world go by.
- Last orders Breakfast is served between 6.30am and 10.30am.
- Room service None.
- Hotel bar None, but the in-room mini Smeg fridges are well stocked. Guests can order drinks in the restaurant.
Hope House 14 Oxford Street, Woodstock, OX20 1TS
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Smith extra at Hope House
A bottle of champagne
In the know
Our favourite rooms
There are only three and each, naturally, has its charms. The Marlborough Suite is in the eaves, with a carved wooden bedhead and lots of cream, beige and gilt. For space, pick the Churchill Suite for its high ceilings and vast bay windows. Both of these have two bedrooms, but the spare room can be closed off if there's just two of you. The Blenheim Suite is the most traditional, with lots of wooden antique furniture and berry-hued fabrics.
Packing tips
A book on 18th-century British architecture, such as Colen Campbell’s famous Vitruvius Britannicus, to help admire Hope House and its similarities with nearby Blenheim Palace.
Also
The house is filled with history: look out for the hand-carved teak panels brought back by the owner’s grandfather on one of his grand voyages as an admiral, and try to guess what the two small doors mounted on the wall in the Churchill Suite’s main bedroom are for (answer: storing hats behind).
