HOME, JAMES
Home, James - Luxury Travel Magazine
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Home, James | |||||
| By: Andrew Conway, Issue 17 – Summer 2004 | |||||
| (Stoke Park Club, UK, London) | |||||
| FROM JAMES BOND TO HUGH GRANT, BRITAIN’S EXCLUSIVE STOKE PARK CLUB IS THE ULTIMATE ELITE RETREAT. Remember the scene in Goldfinger when James Bond defeats the evil villain and Oddjob decapitates a statue with his flying bowler hat? Or the one in Bridget Jones’ Diary when Hugh Grant takes Renee Zellweger away for a romantic weekend in the country, rowing on the lake, followed by a night of, ahem, unbridled passion in their hotel suite? Then you’ll surely recall the magnificent Palladian mansion, landscaped gardens and parkland golf course which played a best supporting role in both box-office hits. Take a bow, Stoke Park Club, one of the UK’s most exclusive and elite retreats, and a shining star in Britain’s rapidly growing spa scene. Just 35 minutes’ drive from central London, 15km from Heathrow Airport and a golf ball’s toss from Royal Windsor, Eton and Ascot, Stoke Park is the ultimate elite retreat, an award-winning combination of upper-crust country house, cutting-edge spa, and 27-hole championship golf course – one of the finest parkland courses in the world – with a rich heritage dating back to Queen Elizabeth 1. The Brideshead Revisited-style club is an 18th century vision of white stone, pillars and cupolas surrounded by gardens landscaped by the renowned Capability Brown and Humphrey Repton. The Stoke Poges golf course was added in 1908 and, almost a century later, the club remains at the forefront of high style and luxury with the opening of a dazzling new $30 million spa, health and racquet pavilion, SPA SPC, built in the grounds of the club. The accommodation, as Jamie Oliver would say, is pucker, with one grand and elegant room leading to the next, an extraordinary single-piece marble and cantilevered staircase, crystal chandeliers, fine artworks and cosy, clubby furnishings. There are 21 suites, junior suites, executive and club rooms lined with antiques, paintings and prints, and large marble bathrooms with underfloor heating (for those chill winter days), a deep claw-foot bathtub and shower. Some suites lead onto a terrace with expansive views of the landscaped gardens and golf course. The club’s signature restaurant is The Park, offering modern British and European cuisine in a relaxed and comfortable Art Deco-inspired setting, also the venue for hearty breakfasts before heading off on a round of golf or spot of sightseeing. The Orangery is a delight, a vast, high-ceilinged salon with floor-to-ceiling windows leading to a gravel courtyard and more views to the gardens. You can dine indoors, or outdoors during the warmer summer months, when a chilled glass of Pimms or a traditional afternoon tea are the order of the day. A light menu is served from 7am to 10pm, making this a popular social venue for members and house guests. The adjoining President’s Bar has a more sporty feel, with a full-size snooker table, cable TV and a bar menu. While golf is naturally the club’s major drawcard (guests can play the course and take lessons from a team of friendly and experienced pros), SPA SPC has set a new benchmark in spa facilities, winning awards from a host of UK newspapers and magazines. Perfect for a post-flight recovery massage, relaxing swim, game of tennis, a health-check up or some well-deserved pampering, the spa has ‘cherry-picked’ the best treatments from the world’s leading beauty companies (SK-II, Prada, Elemis, Kanebo) and fashioned them into an exclusive menu of facials, therapies and treatments. The spa pavilion has 10 private treatment suites, two relaxation rooms, indoor swimming pool, state-of-the-art gym, three indoor, six grass, and four all-weather tennis courts, a Beach Bar serving fresh juices and health-oriented meals, and a hair and beauty salon which will have you looking as good as you feel – all just a stroll from the main clubhouse. Stoke Park Club is in Buckinghamshire, one of Britain’s oldest and prettiest counties. The estate itself boasts an exquisite Elizabethan manor house and even older church; there are some delightful walking trails, and it’s an easy and very pleasant drive through villages and rolling countryside to the royal seat of Windsor with its imposing castle; Ascot – a delight during Britain’s champagne-and-strawberries summer ‘season’ – and Eton, famous for its elite public school, which groomed both Princes William and Harry for their royal destinies. It’s fun to sit in the high street and watch the ‘parade of penguins’, tail-coated young Etonians, on the road to being Masters of Universe, going about their daily business. This is the very heartland of royal and respectable England, where top-drawer tailors can kit you out in everything from top hats to tailcoats in the stitch of a needle. You could also, of course, invest in your very own bowler hat and practice your best Oddjob throwing skills back in the gardens of Stoke Park – but please, not at the statues. | |||||
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