Soho Farmhouse, Oxfordshire
My weekend at one of the UK’s most exclusive retreats - part of my Staycation series.
Set in 100 acres of rolling Oxfordshire countryside on the outskirts of the sleepy village of Chipping Norton, Soho Farmhouse delivers a sense of blissful rural isolation in a bucolic setting. With its accommodation a pleasant blend of Canadian wilderness and American country club, the farmhouse is the ultimate “country-lite” retreat.
Nick Jones launched his empire 20 years ago when he turned the offices above Café Boheme into the exclusive members club Soho House, and has since opened 28 Houses across the world, as well as a fleet of Cecconi's restaurants (my favourite!), Electric Cinemas, and Cowshed Spas.
Can only Members stay at the Farmhouse?
Bedrooms are only available to Soho House members and Soho Friends members. Booking a bedroom also gives you access to the House.
The Rooms:
Wooden, blackened or corrugated iron, the accommodation varies from studio-size to three bedrooms, with interiors designed to Jones-ian perfection. But if proper bricks and mortar is more up your street, there's also a three-bedroom cottage and seven-bedroom farmhouse, the latter the creation of Kirsty Young herself. The 40 guest cabins are spaciously dispersed throughout the property, ours situated conveniently near a gorgeous garden patch overlooking the green acres of Oxfordshire.
The gorgeous Garden Room
Our Room:
Rather than paper over its derelict farm past with wooden beams and exposed brick - the group have embraced it as part of the fabric of this distinctly sultry Garden Room. (Although there are still plenty of the Soho House’s signature touches.) There are cosy snugs everywhere: intimate, low-lit spaces hunkered below exposed timber beams, dotted with squishy armchairs and covetable tribal-patterned stools.
We stayed in the idyllic Garden Room, surrounding the Walled Garden outside. It came fitted with a wood-burning stove and terrace. The main feature being the roll-top tub sitting pretty in the centre of the room - which I LOVED.
Jen approves of the bathtub!
If you've never experienced Soho House or The Ned design, here's the full deal: from every angle the space looks beautiful, and everything is exactly where you want it. Step out of the bathtub and your fluffy dressing gown is right there. Reach into the chicken-wire-covered bar and your Picante is ready-mixed. Open the dressing-table, and there's eye patches and a cashmere-covered hot-water bottle. Want a snack pre-breakfast? The room comes with its own resident cookie jar, filled with the chewiest of chewy homemade cookies.
Facilities:
At the heart of Soho Farmhouse are a collection of pre-existing barns and stone buildings filled with Soho House riffs - including a mill-room pub, a Cowshed Spa, and a Josh Wood Atelier hairdressing salon. The indoor-outdoor pool floating on a lake is stunning; a hot-tub island with an ice room; an Electric Barn cinema; jolly boating across the lake; tennis courts; a kitchen garden and cookery school; reconditioned milk floats to take you on a picnic or serve a cocktail at your cabin; a five-a-side football pitch with a dugout for spectators.
And of course you will have plenty of places to eat. Soho Farmhouse has a rule that no photos are allowed in public areas so I can’t show you what they look like. Options range from the resident Japanese restaurant Pen Yen, wood-fired pizza’s at Hay Barn, Little Bell and Blake’s Kitchen Bakery.
Cowshed Spa:
If I were a celebrity in need of a discrete spa treatment, I would most definitely book into the spa at Cowshed.
Firstly, because it’s fabulous. The therapists are slick, the full Cowshed product range are efficacious and the interiors are as luxurious as you would expect from anything in the Soho House family. The Spa is also fairly unusual among most I’ve visited, in that it’s situated in the centre barn and enjoys stunning views out over the peaceful lake. Perhaps, more importantly though, for my (OK hypothetical) celebrity life, I would choose the spa at Soho Farmhouse because it is so wonderfully private.
Connected to these areas are peaceful, natural-lit waiting areas in which to wait for your treatment and enjoy snacks and tea. I went on a Friday afternoon and in the whole three hours I was there, I barely saw a soul. Heaven.
I opted for the CPD Oil massage for my battered body from all the post-lockdown gym sessions I had been putting myself through the week before. It was total bliss - the masseuse extremely thorough and attentive.
The most idyllic spa room
Soho House policies
Like all properties in the group, Farmhouse has the same T’s and C’s which it asks guests to abide by such as taking photos and taking phone calls. Point being, this is a place that embraces privacy and simplicity (dress is casual, but the crowd is chic – it’s not out of the ordinary to see a celebrity or five in your midst) where you can relax and enjoy your surroundings.
Thoughts
There’s a real buzz to this place, a sense of having unearthed something rather special. It’s not just a new, more relaxed - but meatier - House but a game-changing address in a rich patch of the country that’s on the cusp of receiving the recognition it deserves.
Address: Great Tew, Chipping Norton OX7 4JS
Photo credit: Dezeen.com (The Lake, Main barn and Farmhouse Pool)