In pursuit of hedonism

The Romans would have appreciated Chelsea Physic Garden, which I visited for the first time this week. I whiled away a glorious late summer afternoon in this fragrant four acre oasis, hidden away from bustling London streets. At the end of a fascinating guided tour my companions and I sipped tea in the dappled shade of the restaurant terrace, splitting lavender scones and spreading them with clotted cream and golden mirabelle conserve. It was a veritable feast for the senses.

A Roman favourite

The Romans were great fans of hedonistic pursuits as an antidote to the stresses of urban life. I’m certain they were particularly delighted when they discovered a place in Britain, one of the chillier outposts of their empire, that had natural hot springs, heated to almost 45 degrees Centigrade/113 Fahrenheit,  similar to those found back where they came from in Italy.

The Romans took over and expanded a local settlement which had already grown up around the springs, naming it Aquae Sulis after the Celtic water goddess Sul, for whom they cunningly claimed an honorary association with Minerva, their goddess of wisdom and healing. They were the first in a long line of people to exploit the springs commercially, when they built public baths on the site, which was presided over by an impressive bronze staue of Minerva, unearthed by excavations in 1727.

Today we simply call the city  Bath. The entire city was declared a World Heritage site in 1987. Of course people still visit the Roman Baths; but they are not allowed to bathe, although you can drink the hot thermal water from a fountain in the Pump Room. It contains 43 minerals and has a rather unusual taste.

To enjoy an authentic Roman spa and bathing experience in Bath today, you simply must visit the city’s Thermae Bath Spa. It’s unique in Britain, being the country’s  only natural thermal water spa. Although the city’s larger hotels  offer spa facilities, they cannot replicate the thermal mineral water experience on offer at Thermae.

The Thermae experience

Spa sessions in the New Royal Bath at Thermae can’t be pre-booked unless you come in a group of 8 or more. Prices start at £22 for a two hour session, which we found perfectly adequate. The cost of a towel, robe and slippers are not included in the price, so you can save money by bringing your own; but you definitely can’t manage without – you wouldn’t want to miss the rooftop pool which enjoys a fabulous panorama of the city! If you want to enjoy any treatments in addition to bathing,  you must pre-book them, at additional cost. The time taken up by treatments is added on to your spa session.

When you arrive at Thermae you’re given a wrist band which records your entry time. There are clocks that enable you to keep an eye on the time, but beware if you overstay, you’ll be charged extra when you exit. All the pools are 1.35 metres deep and children under 16 are not permitted.

Over 1 million litres of mineral rich water flow from the Hetling and Cross thermal springs that feed the Thermae complex each day. The pleasantly warm water, heated naturally at a depth of around 2km below the city, is pumped around the modern multistorey spa building in the centre of town, and is served up under varying degrees of pressure and aeration. The water from the springs is believed to have originally fallen as rain 10,000 years ago, which gradually percolated down to be heated by the hot rocks deep below, which forced it back to the surface!

I recommend starting with a soak in Thermae’s panoramic rooftop  pool, which has fountains and underwater jets. One floor down is a suite of 3 steam rooms (where you can steam relax amid scents of either lavender, frankinsense or  euclyptus/mint respectively), a huge central shower  pre programmed with varying pressure phases, and a set of foot spas into which you dangle your feet from a marble relaxation area.

There’s a restaurant floor (which gets busy at lunchtime), but if you patronise it, you get an extra 45 minutes loaded onto on your wristband. Finally there’s a large indoor  pool with a maelstrom style whirlpool to one side, and some poolside fountains that offer a great shoulder massage if you get your timing right.

My conclusion? Even if you don’t book any extra treatments it’s a world class relaxation experience that shouldn’t be missed. I noticed that my skin felt really soft for a couple of days afterwards. For more information visit the website

Staying, shopping and dining in Bath

It was a good choice for us to stay at the McDonald Bath Spa Hotel. We were able to park our car there free of charge, and we found it a pleasant 10 minute walk into the city across Pulteney Bridge. We booked half board and dined nightly in the hotel’s elegant Vellore restaurant, so didn’t try anywhere else; although I heard that Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall has recently opened up in the city. If you want to push the boat out even more try the Relais and Chateaux Royal Crescent Hotel. For self catering accommodation, an increasingly popular option in cities, especially for families, try Saco Bath apartments or Fountain House .

There’s a shop at both Thermae Bath Spa and the Roman Baths; but for more hedonistic retail therapy dont miss Culpeper, a Bath based herbalist which sells their own brand of essential oils, potions and fragrances. You’ll find them at 28 Milsom Street.

You’ll probably be interested to learn that there’s a free daily walking tour of Bath available for visitors.  Jane Austen fans might enjoy the tour by a costumed guide that operates at weekends and bank holidays. Alternatively   you might like to go on a treasure hunt in Bath: in which all the clues can be solved by observation.  More information about Bath

Further background reading

Much of Jane Austen’s novel ‘Northanger Abbey’ is set in Bath; and it’s a location visited by Mr Pickwick in Charles Dickens’s novel ‘The Pick wick Papers’. Read ‘The Apothecaries Garden’ by Sue Minter for more information about the history of The Chelsea Physic Garden, or visit their website

Until next time…

Marketing a rural idyll

With an Indian summer in prospect, my thoughts have turned to the marketing of rural areas to people living in cities. In 1950, the population living in UK cities was 79% – which is a frighteningly large figure – but one set to rise to 92.2% by 2030! In fact globally over half of the planet’s population now live in cities, with the proportion set to rise further.

The rural business challenge

The pressure is on for businesses involved in tourism in rural parts of the country,  to make the most of the opportunity to market the rural idyll that so many of us take for granted, to the urban dwelling majority. Unsurprisingly that’s going to mean serving city dwellers needs better.  Whether we’re an acommodation provider (even if just for visiting friends and relations),  a self catering operator, a farm shop, or an operator of autumnal fungi forays or boat trips, it looks like if we’re going to be really successful we need to make sure we understand and serve the needs of city dwellers.  NPC’s Country Living magazine certainly understands the business model, (and there’s a Hearst Communication US version as well). Many people dream of living in the country, and enjoy reading about it; but a short break or holiday/vacation is likely to be their reality.

The really interesting thing from a rural businesses point of view, is that I know that some  of these city dwellers taking a trip into rural areas of the UK this year still have plenty of money to spend. And how do I know…?

A Daylesford experience

I started to look back for evidence from my own experiences visiting the Cotwolds and Dorset this summer. Immediately I thought of   Daylesford. Owned by Lady Carole Bamford (wife of Sir Anthony, of the JCB empire), it’s a complex of rural farm buildings near the family estate, in Kingham, between Chipping Norton and Stow on the Wold, in Gloucestershire. They also have various shops in districts like Pimlico and Notting Hill, concessions in Harvey Nichols and Selfridges in London, and even a concession in the Bergdorf Goodman store on 5th Avenue, New York. Daylesford has become a destination in it’s own right, responsible for a big increase in local house prices in that part of the Cotswolds, to the evident satifaction of locals including Liz Hurley, Kate Moss and Jeremy Clarkson, who all patronise  Daylesford.

Daylesford’s customers are offered everything from pilates classes and a hay barn spa, to designer chicken arks and gardening tools ; and children can wear their mini cashmere jumpers and join in butter making classes. It wasn’t particularly crowded when we  visited; but those who were there were spending – a lot. Personally I couldn’t resist buying a jar of organic bramble jelly as a gift for my mother; as well as a Daylesford branded hessian potato sack and a book entitled ‘A Slice of Organic Life’ as a treat for myself. It just seemed – well appropriate, somehow. My husband drew the line at me swanning round our local Waitrose with a Daylesford shopping bag, but perhaps now I regret not buying one of those as well!

A bright future for rural retailing

Daylesford as a brand of super farm shop and lifestyle business points the way to the future for rural retailing, and a successful one at that.  Is there room for other competitors? Yes. Some are already out there. Look at the businesses run by people like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall of River Cottage in Dorset, and Sarah Raven and her Cutting Garden in Sussex and Kent; or specialist craft galleries like  Dansel in Abbotsbury, Dorset where I made an impulse purchase of a bird sculpture by Brian Dawson.

So if you provide accommodation for visitors or business travellers, or if you’re involved in a rural business in any way, my advice this week is get to know innovative local retailers, visit their websites, offer links to them on your  web site, and tell your guests about them. They’ll thank you for it. The business owners will thank you for it, and might agree to link their website to you.

People who like what they see at places like Daylesford are likely to recommend them to others. A great rural retail destination can even provide the reason for people to make a trip in the first place, or to return.

If you own a rural retail business yourself, there’s much to be learned from the successful branding and merchandising of businesses like Daylesford.

Further reading

A Slice of Organic Life, edited by Sheherazade Goldsmith, Dorling Kindersley £16.99

Until next week…

PS Do you know any innovative rural retailers ? I’d love to hear about them.

Secrets of stress-free shopping

My advice to anyone planning a shopping trip almost anywhere in England  by car, is to check the traffic! Especially if it involves a long distance on a motorway or major route in the rush hour or on a weekend. When we set off from Kent to Oxfordshire one Sunday morning on the first leg of our summer holiday,  we ground to a halt almost as soon as soon as we hit the M25. It’s no fun counting down shopping time you’re losing at your final destination.

I’ve always found journey planning websites like Via Michelin useful for estimating travel time and planning routes. Now, even I found myself fuming as my carefully planned schedule was having to be revised. Then I began to find out how you can beat traffic, even on busy weekends and unfamiliar roads …

Getting ahead with ‘augmented reality’

It’s a fact that Britain is a crowded island; and I thought little could be done about traffic, but I was wrong. My techno-savvy teenage son had the answer, gleefully explaining how he could see the jam coming before we hit it, in the form of a red line highlighting the affected part of the route. It was thanks to the latest TomTom GPS application he’d just acquired for his Iphone, which speaks out turn by turn directions. Luckily he’d also brought along a windscreen mountable docking station.

So now I’m converted to the value of  sat nav. (having always been a paper map planning type of person up to then). We  agreed to use the system to find our way from that moment on. The only downside is that network coverage isn’t perfect in hilly areas like parts of Devon and Cornwall, and phone screens can be illegible in strong light if your eyesight’s not perfect.

GPS based traffic information is part of new software developments that are collectively serving up ‘augmented reality’.  It requires a  smart phone like Apple’s  Iphone or Google Android. If you’ve got one it offers you a choice of downloadable functions or ‘apps’, many of them either free  or inexpensive. Already here, or coming soon, are  apps like ‘Primospot’ for locating car parks in unfamiliar places,  GPark for locating your car in a crowded car park, Parking App for texting you when your meter is about to run out, and ‘Urbanspoon’ that alerts you to the nearest eating places. I can already see the potential for life to be made a lot easier.

Is there an alternative to the car ?

It’s a lot less hassle and more environmentally friendly travelling by train, as I found out on other UK excursions this summer; but the only problem with rail, or air for that matter, is your  physical ability to carry about your belongings and all the stuff you’ve bought.

Taxis and wheels on your bag only go so far. Go mad in the shops and you have to allow for it to cost you even more in time spent hanging about, tips and excess baggage or shipping charges. So, unless you stick to small light purchases, or if you’re an A lister; if you’re planning a mega shop, there’s probably no viable alternative to the car.

Shop and stay in style within easy reach of London

Once we got there, Waddesdon Manor near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, was great. If you’re a wine lover you’ll love it too. It  looks just like a French  chateau, and has a superb collection of art and antiques. It’s also home to the Rothschild family, who just happen to own  Chateau Mouton Rothschild and Chateau Lafite. So I wasn’t at all surprised to find that Waddesdon has a fantastic wine cellar, a quality restaurant, plant centre and several shops including a wine shop with online purchase options.  The main shop  sells ‘The Collection’ of specially commissioned exclusive Waddesdon items. The estate also features a hotel, the Five Arrows, which regularly holds Sunday night gourmet dinners.

We stayed nearby at Shakespeare House a stylish boutique bed and breakfast in the village of Grendon Underwood. Get them to explain the Shakespearean connection, I won’t spoil the surprise. Stratford Upon Avon is a viable side trip, 40 miles away in Warwickshire.

Shakespeare House is highly convenient for Bicester Village outlet centre, which can be found just off the M40 at junction 9. Advertised as being only ‘one hour from London’ (perhaps by train), this is the only UK factory outlet centre I know that includes truly prestigious brands like Jimmy Choo, Aquascutum, Bulgari, Smythson, Tods, Mulberry and many more like them in its offering.   Somehow it feels easier to venture inside and browse here, rather than in London’s Bond Street or Knightsbridge. Perhaps that’s a contributory factor in its undoubted success.

Bicester Village trends and tips

The Times recently reported that Bicester Village is being actively promoted internationally, not only to Europeans, but also in the Middle East, China and other parts of Asia. The strategy is clearly working.Vistors from the Middle East are up by 73%, China is up by 25% and Russia is up by 87%, all in the past year.

When we visited in mid afternoon the place was absolutely packed, and I particularly noticed for the first time ever (I usually visit in midweek in winter), that I couldn’t find a parking place close to the shops, and had to park in the multi storey across the road. I also had to queue up to pay this time.

As with any outlet centre, you should probably try and keep focussed on making thoughtful purchases of classics that won’t date, rather than impulsively snapping up an opportunity to buy something in an unusual style or colour. On this ocasion I was ensnared by a casual blouse at Thomas Pink. Allow yourself plenty of time when you come here, as there are over 120 individual shops. Check the website in advance for details of opening times and the latest promotions. It pays dividends to be well organised if it’s crowded.

Further reading

If you’ve got a spare minute try Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and what it says about us) by Tom Vanderbilt.

Next week, I’ll be sharing my shopping experiences  in the Cotswolds  and elsewhere.

Until then…