Here modern materials and approaches are used to traditional features such as fireplaces.

An offspring of Blackburn brewery Daniel Thwaites, the Shire Hotels group now has 9 properties, flagship of which is the remarkable Stafford Hotel in London’s St. James, once praised in London’s Evening Standard newspaper as symbolic of the Best of British, and described as ‘London’s best country house hotel’. The five new builds completed are all different, but have all delivered a remarkable product to this small English chain.

This particular hotel is flooded with light throughout, and combined with the stylish modern finishes has succeeded in capturing a light and airy feel to the building, contrasting interestingly with earlier hotels of the same plan form where the use of exposed oak timbers created a very traditional feel within an similar building envelope.

Previous developments have been equally modern but with a more traditional edge, using traditional materials such as oak and granite.

All Shire Hotels pools are designed with a jacuzzi, childrens area as well as a main pool with a 25 metre exercise area. This one also has a disinctly Mediterranean feel. Rollover here to see how sunlight gives this feel to the restaurant too.

This hotel swings with the modern trend, more minimalist, whilst successfully keeping the classical references that make the other hotels such a delight. Generally the problem with many contemporary hotels is that they are not welcoming. An unfortunate side effect of modernism is a lack of softness, and almost factory like emphasis on hard finishes and a certain level of bleakness. Here the designers have avoided this trap in the main, with the right note being struck in the entrance where a neat zinc box set into the wall holds the logs for the log fire – modern and traditional sit at ease with each other, function triumphing as it should in good design.

The fireplaces are a design feature of the public areas, but one of the noticeable improvements in the standards over the previous hotels is the clever manipulation of the space within the bedroom footprint to allow the creation of a separate shower in the bathroom. In this situation the handset should also be kept over the bath for those who prefer not to wash their hair in the shower, but cost saving has removed it except in the suites.