Brit Edit
Your curated guide to Britain this season
ANNIVERSARY
If you go into the woods…
To mark the centenary of the publication of AA Milne’s first Winnie the Pooh book (written for his son, Christopher, right) the beloved bear’s stomping ground of Ashdown Forest, in East Sussex, is getting a magical makeover this year.
The Big One Hundred project will see the forest, which inspired Hundred Acre Wood, get a new inhabitant: a huge puppet that will be the centrepiece to lots of free cultural performances. There will also be five new walking trails themed around some of the forest’s native species that will highlight the scientific significance of the forest’s rare heathland.
Angie Bual, creative director and joint CEO of Trigger, the artists behind the project, said: “To celebrate this site of imagination, we are weaving a new myth for this extraordinary landscape.
“This project is about engaging people’s hearts and minds with the fact that Ashdown Forest is a national conservation site and that places like this are increasingly at risk. We need to inspire a new generation of people who will care for these landscapes over time.”
thebigonehundred.co.uk
Look out for our Winnie the Pooh special coming soon
Strange SUFFOLK
Local-born writer Kayleigh Rattle takes us on a journey through the county’s unusual traditions and curious legends
My Britain
Steve Thornett, head doorman at London’s luxury 5-star Milestone Hotel, shares some of his capital knowledge with Jeremy Flint
I am a 46-year-old Welshman from Abergavenny and have worked for 27 years in the hotel industry. I love my job – it doesn’t feel like work and every day is different.
I grew up in a pub for 10 years as a teenager before moving to London. After my GCSEs, I got a job at a hotel in Euston. I started working in food and beverage and silver service. I spent two months working on reception, and I then joined the concierge department 26 years ago.
I took pouring pints to the next level of opening doors. I later worked at the Chesterfield Hotel and when the doorman broke his leg, I covered the door for two weeks, while the owners, Stanley and Beatrice Tollman, visited from South Africa. I would say good morning to a man every day who turned out to be the Head of the Dorchester in Mayfair, so I went to work on the door there for 10 weeks, aged 20.
While in Mayfair, I met Douglas, the head doorman at the Hilton on Park Lane at the time, and jumped on the door there from 1999 to 2012. On Royal Duty at the Hilton, I received a card from Catherine and William after their wedding and met the Queen seven times. She even spoke to me once. I opened the door for her husband, the Duke, who liked a joke and said: “A Welshman on the door of the Hilton? Whatever next!”
London SPOTLIGHT
This issue, our Londonphile – with the help of our editor – takes a dip in some of London’s best and most historic spas
Porchester Spa, Queensway
After a recent £800,000 refurbishment by Westminster City Council, London’s oldest spa, which originally opened in 1929, has been returned to its former Art Deco splendour. Part of the iconic Grade II-listed Porchester Hall in Bayswater (close to Paddington) in West London, the building retains many of its original features, including its famous green-and-white tiles. There are two steam rooms, three Turkish-style baths (a tepidarium, caldarium, and laconicum, to give them their Latin names), a Finnish-style sauna, ice-cold plunge pool and a 99-foot swimming pool plus a relaxation area and café. Treatments are also available by appointment from the spa’s two resident therapists. This is a municipal baths frequented by locals, so remember to bring a towel as well as your own flip-flops or slippers. Oh, and don’t forget a 20p piece for the lockers! everyonespa.com/our-venues/porchester-spa-westminster
The Roman invasion of AD43 brought many things to Britain besides just stricter laws, straighter roads and salacious appetites. While those leisure-loving Italians were famous for their sumptuous banquets, spectacular gladiator battles and hedonistic (ahem!) orgies, they were also rather fond of a good old dip in the bath. Celtic tribes had been using Britain’s natural hot springs (such as those in the appropriately named city of Bath) for religious rituals since around 700BC, but it was the Romans who elevated the gentle soak into a fine art. The word ‘spa’ is even believed to come from the Latin phrase salus per aquam, meaning ‘health through water’. There are now around 500 spas operating in London; here are five of the most historic and the most decadent for you to consider dipping your toes in.
Russell Higham is a freelance journalist who writes on arts, culture, history, travel, and British heritage
Milestone, Kensington
This small but perfectly formed hotel located directly opposite Kensington Palace is adept at combining wellness with hospitality. In addition to special sleep-inducing mattresses in the luxury bedrooms and health-focused dishes available in the restaurant – housed in a former chapel – there’s a beautiful boutique spa with a couple of tricks up its elegant sleeve. A state-of-the-art gym and cold-plunge bath are complemented by a ‘resistance pool’ that emulates swimming against a current, delivering a highly efficient form of exercise that’s also kinder on the body’s joints. The spa’s resident therapist Jana Watson can tailor a bespoke massage or treatment matched exactly to your needs, whether that be for physical or emotional wellbeing, mobility or relaxation. She also offers one that specifically caters for jet-lag – popular among many of the Milestone’s transatlantic guests – as well as more specialist treatments designed for medical and post-op patients. milestonehotel.com/wellness
York Hall, Bethnal Green
Tying with Porchester for the position of London’s oldest spa, York Hall’s public baths and washhouses were opened in 1929 by the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth), accompanied by the then-Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald.
Nicknamed ‘the people’s spa’ by local East End residents, it has been renovated by Tower Hamlets council and now comprises a hammam, sauna, two large ‘aroma’ steam rooms, several hot rooms, a bucket shower, ice fountain, swimming pool and a plunge pool. York Hall, which also houses a 1,200-seat sports arena, has served the residents of the East End for nearly a century and is considered by many to be the spiritual home of British boxing. As well as treatments and therapies, there is an eclectic programme of exercise classes available in the adjoining multi-station gym. be-well.org.uk/centres/york-hall-leisure-centre
