Babington House

Pre-dating by a moment or two the new rush of country-house design hotels, Babington House was opened in the late Nineties as a sort of rustic sequel to the London members club Soho House. As such it’s quite understandably less about pining for the bygone days of shooting parties and fox hunts, and more about fast-living urban types (read: Soho House denizens) getting a moment’s rest from the city.

This is not to say it’s short on old-world charm — it’s an absolutely authentic Georgian manor house, and its exterior may look familiar to fans of Jane Austen adaptations. But the Babington House experience is a loose and unstructured sort of country excursion, where meals are available at all hours and recreation is of the do-it-yourself variety, whether it’s a swim or a game of tennis down at the Cowshed spa, an afternoon or evening film screening in the cinema, or a child-free hour in the billiards lounge.

Meanwhile the guest rooms are divided between the main house and several outbuildings; all offer plenty of comforts, both low-tech and high, as well as lavishly equipped bathrooms that threaten to make the Cowshed spa almost redundant. Public spaces, including the bar and the two restaurants, buzz with activity, as the hotel is most often full. It’s never lonely here — although you’re quite in the middle of nowhere, in the Somerset countryside, there’s always a bit of London to keep you company.