Tat London Journal

For years we’ve been devotees of Airbnb, though not, I should stress, of the company itself. The corporation leaves me cold. What I admire are the homes—the good ones. Not the hollow-eyed investment shells you can spot from a mile off: leathery bar stools, chesterfield sofas, karate-chopped cushions.

I haven’t done half term in a while, but I know it matters to many. I’m not sure how many people actually go away, yet if you fancy a change of scene and a bit of time with family or friends, here are a few ideas for a week in the countryside.

At Tat, we like to keep a few small pleasures on the horizon — a perfectly mixed martini, a meander through a museum, or, more often than not, a night away. And just because the summer holidays have had their swansong doesn’t mean the chance for escape has vanished.

I used to think my bucket list began and ended with the Orient Express. Not very imaginative, I know — but I am, after all, a woman who loves to laze, imbibe beauty, and drink on public (and not so public) transport, so it always felt like the perfect fit.

Wales is a poetic place, offering everyone a home—whether in the height of summer or those weekends that crawl into autumn. As Dylan Thomas put it, “Wales is a land of sea and castles, of mountains and miners, and of small coal-black towns huddled under the wings of the hills.” The coal may be mostly gone, but the castles, the sea, the mountains, and the endless hills remain.

A few months ago, I popped into Colbert, that cafe which takes up much of the corner of Sloane Square. I was there to meet the Spanish interior designer Marta de la Rica. We covered the usual ground one does on a first meeting. I, of course, opened with the weather — Madrid had apparently been having a very wet spell, which gave me a brief opportunity to enjoy that smug British pastime of claiming superiority over continental climates, a pleasure we get to indulge perhaps onc

As you know, we are taking a little break from the old masters of the planet of renting — Airbnb. That being said, I see no reason why you can’t make your way through our lists upon lists of previous finds. All that hard searching might as well be put to some good use. And you, my dear, having a holiday is of the utmost importance.

This feature was so well received last time, we thought we’d continue with good cheer. The people below are true connoisseurs of taste: antique dealers, designers, and writers whose eye for the beautiful and unusual I trust implicitly. They’re the ones I turn to for advice on all things aesthetic — and, if I’m honest, on most other matters too.

‘Unchanged, you know, like stepping back into the pas, to the part of the past that one had loved and enjoyed.’ That, according to Miss Marple, is her verdict on Bertram’s Hotel, the setting of Agatha Christie’s eleventh Miss Marple novel. In today’s parlance, I thought such places no longer existed. But my doubt was firmly shattered after a night at Hartwell House. Like many of you, I’m sure, the idea of a night away from one’s real life is both a want and a need. If you wal