20th August 2024
#Heritage #Hotels #Young's Rooms
Staying overnight in a pub is by no means a newfangled thing. Britain’s roadside inns have been hosting tuckered-out travellers for centuries. And we’ve been part of that fine tradition for not far off two hundred years. Providing people with comfy beds and comforting food and beverages from 1831 is a great legacy we’re joyfully upholding today.
One of our first-ever pitstops for weary wayfarers was the gorgeous Coach & Horses, a Georgian-era inn in Kew (not far from the famous gardens). It’s been part of the family as long as we’ve been in business.
One of only three pubs in Kew at the time, it provided an essential public service in those less-than-convenient days. For travellers back then, it would’ve been a sight for sore eyes (and a soother for sore everything else on those bumpy roads). Imagine how good a roaring fire, some hearty stew, some frothy beer, and a ready bed just upstairs would have been to horse-and-carriage crews.
And beyond looking after guests of the pub, the landlord of the time also allowed various local businesses to keep their horses there at its stable at the back. A scene that would get very interesting when the Young’s Drays turned up to deliver beer. Tall horses suddenly looked like toy horses next to the majestic Shires.
Coach & Horses is still one of our most-loved pubs with rooms. But now (thanks to some betterment-bringing Victorian and turn-of-this-century updates) it has 31 bedrooms. And they’re beautiful in their botanical fineries. Lush is not too much of a word to use to describe them.
While we’ve brought it bang up to date, you can still sense the history. Beautiful wood-panelled interiors are a knowing nod to its 18th-century heritage, and The Library private dining space is an elegant echo of past times. The pub’s name (not to mention the antique horsedrawn coach out front) is a clear reminder of how folk got from A to B back then.
Knowing the pub is as popular in times when guests arrive in electric cars means we must’ve been doing something right all these years.
