Estelle Manor

Estelle Manor arrived in 2023 with the swagger of a house that intends to redefine the English country escape. The bones are Eynsham Hall, a vast Jacobethan pile in 60-odd acres of Oxfordshire parkland near Witney, on the Cotswolds' eastern edge. Its backers—the team behind London's Maison Estelle—have layered on interiors of extraordinary richness: carved oak, velvet, marble and lacquer deployed with a maximalist confidence that makes most manor hotels look timid.

The model blends hotel and members' club, which gives the public rooms a social pulse most country houses lack: multiple restaurants including a glasshouse brasserie and a Cantonese dining room, bars that stay lively late, a screening room and generous kids' provision tucked discreetly aside. Bedrooms in the main house pile on the theatre, while garden and woodland rooms suit those who prefer their opulence with more calm.

The headline act is Eynsham Baths, a Roman-inspired thermal complex in the trees with a sequence of marble pools, saunas, steam rooms and cold plunges on a scale unmatched by any English country hotel. Between the baths, the gym, padel courts and grounds, a weekend disappears quickly. Traditionalists may find the scene-y energy at odds with pastoral quiet, but as a statement of where the English country house is heading, Estelle Manor is essential viewing.