What’s the story?
Five years ago the entrepreneur Penny Streeter bought Leonardslee, a 19th-century Italianate mansion with 240 acres of grade I listed woodlands near Horsham in West Sussex. Since then she has spearheaded its renovation, starting with one of the UK’s largest garden restoration projects. Next up was Restaurant Interlude, which quickly won a Michelin star for fine dining inspired by the estate’s flora and fauna. Now Streeter has reopened the grade II listed house as a lavish ten-bedroom hideaway.
What do we like?
The hotel, gardens and dining are thoughtfully entwined in an indulgent experience. Work up an appetite by strolling through the sculpture-studded fairytale grounds, created by the Victorian plant hunter Edmund Loder and linked by seven lakes. By late afternoon, day visitors have departed and you only share the great outdoors with deer and wallabies. Yes, really. They were Loder’s answer to lawnmowers.
Your epicurean journey starts promptly at 7pm, when guests are ushered from the bar into the grand dining room for a 21-course tasting menu. It’s as expertly choreographed as a Strictly Come Dancing final, with diners receiving each theatrically constructed dish — some are embedded in logs — at the same time.
The South African-born executive chef Jean Delport weaves the woodlands and a sprinkle of Capelands into each mouthful. Each course comes with a card explaining its inspiration and includes a map that details where the ingredients were foraged. One canapé was a spin on a traditional Afrikaans onion salad delicately laced with vinegar made from Leonardslee’s magnolias, while my local wagyu beef was scented with uplifting pine, picked a few feet from the house, and sap from the gardens’ ancient oaks added a piquant earthiness to my snail fricassee.
Each bedroom showcases a quintessentially British designer such as Penny Morrison or Nina Campbell. Several have Insta-worthy Calacatta marble bathrooms with freestanding baths, although classic rooms have only showers (Rose, decorated by Colefax and Fowler, is the pick of the latter). For a special birthday or anniversary, this place is definitely worth the splurge.
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What’s near by?
Horsham’s shops and museum are worth a morning’s mooch. It’s an easy drive
to the chalk grasslands and heaths of the South Downs National Park (southdowns.gov.uk). Some of England’s best sparkling wine producers are close, such as Wiston Estate (wistonestate.com; tours from £25pp) and Ridgeview Wine Estate (ridgeview.co.uk; tours from £25pp).
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