As part of our relocation deal, Matt’s new game studio placed us in the Bromley Court Hotel, perched on Bromley Hill, for two weeks while we find a more permanent home. When we snooped the place online, we thought it looked great – pretty and relaxing. We were right. They nailed it.
The interior of the hotel is this interesting mix of homey and grand. I mentioned previously, the restaurant is really great. We splurged for a single dinner here and it is probably my favorite UK meal so far.
I complained a lot about our time in the hotel and should be clear – it has nothing to do with the hotel itself, and everything to do with the inevitable misery of two adults and a baby having to share a small room for two weeks.
Here’s a peek at some of the interior:
See? Kind of grand! Check out that ceiling!
Dexter spent a lot of time practicing climbing those stairs – they aren’t very steep and he liked to ascend and descend holding the bars along the side while walking upright like a big boy.
Spoiler: a cloakroom is just a restroom. I thought it was fancy outerwear storage.
No tour of our room. It was small but downright enormous by England standards.
(Matt: “What do you think British people think when they stay in American hotel rooms?”
Me: “Look at all this SPACE! It’s BLOODY BRILLIANT!!!”)
And in our case, the room was stuffed with suitcases and a pack-n-play and boxes and yeah. We did our best, but when you’re drying baby bottles on a towel on the windowsill and there’s no refrigerator so you’re managing leaky ice buckets to try to keep milk cold and there are toys everywhere…. it’s hard to keep things neat.
The real star, though, is the gardens. I mentioned already that we were blessed with incredible weather during our entire stay, so at least once a day (but usually more than that), we’d take Dexter out back to the gardens and let him run around. He’d climb the trees, stack rocks, stroke flowers and explore.
Twins!
Okay, let’s go back inside for a minute.
I mentioned the restaurant is quite good. They also have a cocktail lounge filled with candy-colored velvety seats. Dex and I had lunch there once.
My favorite fries (I’m not British enough to call them chips yet) I’ve eaten in all of England, and we’ve tried quite a few.
Dex was a fan, too!
More huge windows. Bad light, but fun for Dexter!
Back to the room for one quick story. As mentioned, to get Dex to sleep, we’d have to lay him down and leave the room, only re-entering once he was konked out. One evening, during the re-entering process, I looked down and he was sleeping on his back, which he rarely does, looking like a perfect angel. I couldn’t resist a photo.
Except… somehow, the flash was on! I quickly spun away from the sleeping kid, in a panic. When I looked at my photos later, this was on there:
The accidental photo is sideways but if you look toward the top, you can see that Matt is raising his arms in the universal gesture for WTF ARE YOU DOING YOU CRAZY IDIOT?!!!!
Anyway, I’m glad we’re not living there anymore, but our time at the Bromley Court Hotel was as comfortable as it could be, and at times, downright enjoyable. I haven’t done the research myself but Matt says it’s surprisingly affordable, too. I will tell you that they are a big time wedding venue, so if you’re there on the weekends, you’re hearing at least one wedding but more likely, 2-3.
Those gardens, though. Some day I want to go back and spring for the afternoon tea.