This week's new openings: Artist Residence Oxfordshire, the Hind's Head, Ye Olde Bell Spa and more

Artist Residence Oxfordshire

 

Artist Residence Oxfordshire, a 16th century pub and restaurant with five bedrooms, is now open, joining the group's sister properties in Penzance, Brighton and London.

 

Justin and Charlotte Salisbury designed the latest site, restoring an abundance of original features including flagstone flooring, dark oak panelling, rustic beams and exposed stone and brick. They also hand-picked pieces from auction houses and reclamation yards to complement the existing features.

 

The kitchen is run by Leon Smith, who previously worked as a senior sous chef at Josh Eggleton’s Pony and Trap, and he will focus on foraged mushrooms and herbs and locally-sourced ingredients.

 

Opened 23 May

 

Bedrooms Five

 

Starting room rate £130 B&B

 

Head chef Leon Smith

 

Typical dishes Lamb rump with miso glaze and homemade ricotta; and wild nettle gnocchi with purple sprouting broccoli

 

Website www.artistresidenceoxford.co.uk

 

The Hind’s Head

 

Heston Blumenthal’s Hind’s Head pub in Bray, Berkshire, has reopened after a redesign, which celebrates the building’s history as a hunting lodge and coaching inn. The private dining room now centres around a five-metre long oak banqueting table, with studded leather seats and royal portraiture.

 

Design Steven Saunders of Fabled Studios

 

Chef-patron Heston Blumenthal

 

Head chef Janos Veres

 

Website www.hindsheadbray.com

 

Little Bird Battersea

 

Little Bird in London’s Battersea is a bar and restaurant offering colourful cocktails and Asian-inspired cuisine with a Mediterranean twist. The interior features striking prints, hanging foliage and hand-painted wallpaper depicting birds of paradise, along with a terrace and open-air courtyard.

 

Founder Lorraine Angliss

 

Head chef Ricardo Villar

 

Guest bartender Benji Purslow

 

Website www.littlebirdrestaurants.com

 

The Botanist

 

The New World Trading Company has opened its 17th site, the Botanist in Reading. The bar is on the ground floor of a former bank on King Street, where the previous owner’s brass nameplate, ‘J and C Simonds’, is on the wall. The site will serve the brand’s botanical cocktails, along with barbecued meats, pies and kebabs, with live music every night.

 

Operator The New World Trading Company

 

General manager Matt Tomkins

 

Website thebotanist.uk.com

 

Prince of Peckham

 

The Prince of Peckham in London is open, serving Caribbean food and beer and rum cocktails in an old-fashioned pub setting. The pub will host regular events and workshops celebrating the roots and culture of the area along with a programme of weekly music.

 

Founder Clement Ogbonnaya

 

Operator The Arbuthnot Group

 

Typical dishes Curried mutton shepherd’s pie; and jerk sausages and mash with onion gravy

 

Website www.princeofpeckham.co.uk

 

The Rise

 

The Rise, a new restaurant and live music destination, has opened at the Grand Hotel & Spa in York. The decor pays homage to the building’s history and its occupier in 1906, the North Eastern Railway company.

 

Operator Splendid Hospitality Group

 

Head chef Craig Atchinson

 

Design Twenty2 Degrees

 

Typical dish Marinated artichoke, sun-blushed tomatoes and Yorkshire Fettle salad

 

Website theriseyork.co.uk

 

Ye Olde Bell Spa

 

The spa at the four-AA-star, 59-bedroom Ye Olde Bell hotel in Retford, Nottinghamshire, has opened, featuring an indoor and outdoor pool, the Herb Garden Brasserie and a hair and beauty salon. It also boasts saunas, a salt room and a ‘snowstorm experience’.

 

Treatment rooms Six

 

Spa directors Sadie Ardron-Levack and Lizzie Bath

 

Design Hilary Levack and Tonia Wynne of Homestead Interiors

 

Website www.yeoldebell-hotel.co.uk