Theresa Dowling on her favourite hotel, The Scarlet in Cornwall
Editor of FX magazine Theresa Dowling on an eco hotel that gets the balance of luxury and pleasure just right.
Architect: Harrison Sutton Partnership
Interior design:Max Bentheim and Rebecca Whittington
Hotels can offer many things, but luxury and pleasure are not usually the same experience. Cosseted luxury doesn't work for me. Remember when over-zealous restaurants, desperate to make you feel indulged, employed someone in the toilets to offer you a towel to dry your hands on - that's luxury for some people, but not me. I always found this intrusive, offensive and even a little vulgar in the 'Are you being served' format. It's complete nonsense that someone should feel 'pampered' by having a towel handed to them.
If pleasure is something that makes you happy, and luxury is indulgence, (whatever that might mean to you), The Scarlet is a winning ticket.
I reviewed it when it opened four years ago and remember it as being enjoyable then, since when I've visited many hotels from budget hotels to annoying business hotels with various scales on the pleasure or luxury barometer, but rarely both.
This is in a perfect position on the rugged north Cornwall coast facing the drama of the crashing Atlantic, with every room having access to magnificent views of the sea. But it is the design and architecture that make you gasp just because the design facilitates this glorious landscape. It is not overpowering, and certainly not ostentatious , but it's a 'quiet' interior design. It's not shouty, and neither 'homely nor uber-cool - but there's loads of space and light with well-appointed furniture from Ligne Roset, Dovetail, and Magis among others, leading to a spectacular balcony.
And so many public areas for guests to relax in: there's the upper terrace, library, meditation room, pool areas et al, not to forget the hot tubs on the cliffs that is part of the hotel's garden. When you consider hotels make their money from bedroom occupancy, giving so much space away to guests' pleasure is itself a luxury.
The hotel dispenses with any conventional front desk reception but staff seem to spring out of nowhere to welcome you and offer assistance when needed. As for eco-chic, this hotel boasts more initiatives than most, even including a natural, chemical-free, outdoor swimming pool using a living reed bed as a filtration system - which was too cold to be a pleasure to use but nevertheless a pleasure to look at!
Theresa Dowling
