An Inspector Calls: Brighton
Last updated at 12:46 05 December 2007
The rooms at Drakes are compact but with fluffy pillows galore...
Rating: four out of fiveDrakes is slap bang on Brighton's seafront. In fact, it is so near the sea, it almost rises and falls with the English Channel. This is a promising start. After all, nothing beats opening the shutters on to an ocean view.
Drakes is also something of a newcomer to the Brighton hotel scene. It occupies two townhouses designed by Charles Busby in the Regency style. A Mr and Mrs Simmonds bought the buildings 45 years ago and turned them into a hotel called, appropriately, Simmonds.
It became Drakes five years ago and has since received the full boutique hotel treatment.
One of its claims to local fame is the success of the restaurant. Sadly, I arrive too late to sample The Gingerman's modern British fare, but I do get to peruse the menu: roast pigeon with cauliflower puree would have done nicely as a starter, followed by confit of belly pork with braised lentils and root vegetables. Two courses will cost you £27. There's plenty of time for a drink at the small bar (open 24 hours) and the charming American barman then escorts me upstairs and we both get a good work-out because there is no lift and I am booked into a room on the top floor.
American Double is the official description of this shoebox. Two people would struggle here unless they have a fetish for bumping into each other.
No complaints, though, about the comfy bed, which is laden with fluffy pillows. The TV gets loads of satellite channels and there are quite a few gimmicks such as coloured lighting in the bathroom. Products are by The White Company. In one corner there's a dumb waiter with all sorts of tea and coffee-making devices, water and shortbread.
It's tempting to suggest that next morning I am woken by the sound of the waves when, actually, it's the roar of traffic.
Downstairs, the American has gone home but the man replacing him is just as efficient. And so is the young fellow serving breakfast. What's more, he doesn't look troubled when you ask for a bottle of HP sauce. And I see there's soft-boiled eggs with soldiers on offer for £10.
There's time for a bracing walk along the front and a chance to do some Christmas shopping in The Lanes before heading back to the station. Brighton doesn't seem to have changed one jot.
It's still grubby and it feels like it's trying to recover from a hangover. It's likeably eccentric and suitably different from anywhere else on earth. A weekend break here is still a rite of passage.
Travel facts
Drakes 44 Marine Parade, Brighton, East Sussex BN2 1PE Tel: 01273 696 934; drakesofbrighton.com Doubles from £95, room only.
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