FOOD + DRINK
THE PIG AT BRIDGE PLACE
SOME HOTELS ARE ALL POLISH AND NO PULSE, BUT THE PIG- AT BRIDGE PLACE HAS BOTH. SET JUST OUTSIDE CANTERBURY, THE RED-BRICK HOUSE CARRIES THE SUBTLE SWAG OF SOMEWHERE THAT HAS LIVED A FEW LIVES ALREADY AND RELISHED EVERY ONE OF THEM. BY POLLY HUMPHRIS
© Key & Quill
Built in the 17th century, the house later became one of Kent’ s most notorious music venues, with Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and others all passing through its doors during its country-club years. That history matters because you can still feel it now- not in any crass, thematic way, but in the atmosphere: the low lighting, the rich colours and the sense of a classy looseness around the edges of all that good taste. It has the warmth and comfort of a country house hotel by the bucketload, but there is a definite flicker of rock-star sparkle still caught in the grain, so it feels a little edgier than the usual rural retreat, with just enough mischief left in the walls.
This palpable sense of ease runs right through both the grounds and the holistic experience that the hotel offers. Under an hour from London, THE PIG- at Bridge Place feels a world away from the capital’ s frenetic pace; it’ s deeply entrenched in countryside calm, with babbling brooks, mature trees, winding paths and a shoulderdropping peace that settles over you even before you’ ve checked in. There are 29 rooms in total, with the accommodation spread across the main house and surrounding buildings, but there’ s also seven Hop Pickers’ Huts set back from the main drag. Reached by a winding boardwalk and tucked into the rippling water meadows, they are deliberately apart from the main hotel, which makes arriving at one feel less like entering a room and more like stepping into your own private pocket of Kentish countryside.
My hut was a lesson in how to do rustic romance without lapsing into parody. The styling is beautiful- deep green, mustard and earthy brown, all anchored by wood in different tones and textures. Deeply English, but far from twee, classic touches including a rotary phone, a Roberts radio and a Bauhaus-like powder-coated desk lamp silhouetted against a window overlooking the flowing water beyond lend the space a distinctly nostalgic but never performative feel. More’ s the point, it is extremely comfortable, with a freestanding roll-top bath in the bedroom, a monsoon shower, super-king-size bed and an outdoor seating area on the porch overlooking the grounds, which is an ideal spot for a pre-dinner aperitif under the soft glare of the setting sun.
And yet, as lovely as the huts are, they only make complete sense once you understand the wider philosophy of the place. At THE PIG, everything starts in the Kitchen Garden. This is not branding boilerplate, but the operating principle- what’ s fresh and ready in the heaving gardens decides the menus, with gardeners handing over baskets of picked produce each morning, and anything the team cannot grow themselves
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