What’s the vibe?
Having just wrapped up the season celebrating the birth of a baby in a stable, it feels rather fitting to find myself sleeping in one. Though, at Updown Farmhouse, the tale takes a decidedly more luxurious turn. The recently opened stable bedrooms eschew mangers for super-king beds piled high with feather pillows and draped in high-thread-count linens. There are no bleating donkeys or oxen here, but sympathetically restored 17th-century high ceilings and wooden beams, framing a curated mix of artwork from owners Ruth Leigh and Oliver Brown’s private collection, alongside pieces by Brown’s mother and brother. And while three unknown men bearing gifts won’t come knocking, you will wake to a bottle of milk left at your door for tea-making – a present many English would argue is more valuable than frankincense or myrrh.
Stable rooms exterior
Stable rooms interior
Tucked away in the rolling Kent countryside, Updown Farmhouse has been quietly beguiling guests since its transformation during lockdown. Once the family home of owners Leigh and Brown, the intimate red-brick farmhouse is now a restaurant with rooms – and yet, it still feels very much like a home. That is if your home could grace the pages of Architectural Digest. From the living room to the library, every inch of the property brims with colour and antiques from nearby Deal’s boutiques and markets. Whether pouring a dram at the honesty bar, getting stuck into Scrabble in the library or reading the Sunday paper curled up by the hearth, staying at Updown feels like a screenwriter’s vision of a perfectly romanticised rural British idyll.
What to eat?
Butterflied fish with peas at the Updown Farmhouse restaurant
Follow the stone path from the farmhouse, and you’ll find yourself at the central artery of Updown Farmhouse: its restaurant. Housed in a light-filled conservatory threaded with grape vines, the dining space serves a concise menu that skews Italian and focuses on hyper-seasonality – apt for a restaurant located in the garden of England. Chef Oli Brown, formerly of Le Café Anglais and Duck Duck Goose, helms the hobs, coaxing flavour from a wood-fired grill and the farmhouse’s original bread oven. Meanwhile, Ruth Leigh, who has accrued years of experience working under her father, celebrated chef Rowley Leigh, ensures service feels like an extension of home. Sharpen your appetite with a fig leaf negroni, followed by pillowy focaccia slicked with olive oil, anchovy-spiked roast lamb served with peony-like bitter leaves and pizzettas piled high with molten fontina and sliced potato.
Breakfast, served in the same conservatory each morning, is nirvana for the avid porcophile. Kick off proceedings with a spread of mortadella, prosciutto, and coppa before the main event: the full English – abundant with hefty, pepper-punctuated bangers, thick, salty rashers of bacon, and cornfield-yellow scrambled eggs so bright and shiny they must contain a filament.
The Updown Farmhouse restaurant
What to do?
Slide into a pair of wellies and ramble the seven and a half acres of land the house is set in, or if you’ve got your car, head to nearby Deal, where you can get your fill of the British seaside. Once you’ve haemorrhaged all your shrapnel at Pier View Amusements, grab some whelks at Deal Seafood Stall and subsequently stroll down the pier to watch the fishermen reeling in their catch. Sandwich (originally home to the 4th Earl of Sandwich, who did, in fact, invent the sandwich) is also a short drive away, where you can wander to the quayside, eyeing half-timbered houses, before heading to Ossies Fish Bar for an unrivalled fish, chips, mushy peas and curry sauce.
For more information visit updownfarmhouse.com
