Coworth Park

The drive at Coworth Park crosses a stream, skirts a polo field and ends at a Georgian mansion the colour of pale honey. The house dates from 1776, the parkland around it covers 240 acres, and the estate sits on the edge of Ascot, with Windsor Great Park across the road. Since September 2010 it has been the country hotel of Dorchester Collection, the sister house of The Dorchester and 45 Park Lane in London.

History

The mansion was built in 1776 for William Shepheard, a merchant, on land that had belonged to the manor of Sunninghill. It passed through private hands for two centuries. In the 1980s the Galen Weston family made it a polo estate, and the fields and stables date from that use. Dorchester Collection bought the estate and spent several years converting it, opening Coworth Park on 10 September 2010. In May 2018 Prince Harry and his brother stayed at the house the night before the wedding at St George's Chapel in Windsor, five miles away.

Architecture and design

The Mansion House keeps its Georgian front and the bow windows of its garden rooms. Inside, the designers used a lighter English manner than the London hotels: a copper-leaf staircase, hand-painted wallpapers, oak and limestone, and a sitting room with fires lit from October. The Stables, a courtyard of converted brick stable blocks a short way from the house, hold more rooms and The Barn restaurant. The spa was built into the slope below the garden, with a green roof of meadow so that it reads as a lawn from the house, and an indoor pool lit through a glass wall.

Rooms and suites

The hotel has 70 rooms and suites. Sixteen are in the Mansion House, with the Dower House Suite in its own building; most of the remainder are in the Stables, and a handful of cottages across the estate take families or small parties. Rooms in the house have views across the park and the polo fields; the Stables rooms open onto the courtyard and are the choice for guests with dogs, which the hotel accepts.

Dining

Woven by Adam Smith is the gastronomic restaurant in the Mansion House, with one Michelin star, serving British produce and a wine list anchored in the Old World. The Barn, in the Stables courtyard, is the all-day restaurant with a terrace and a simpler menu of roasts and grills. The Drawing Room serves afternoon tea beneath its painted ceiling, and the bar in the house opens in the evening.

Wellness

The spa has an indoor pool, treatment rooms, a sauna, a steam room and a gym, with the lawn above it. The equestrian centre offers riding lessons and hacks in the park, and the two polo fields host matches in summer, with lessons for guests at the hotel's own polo school. Walks and runs lead into Windsor Great Park and around Virginia Water. The hotel also arranges golf at Wentworth and Sunningdale.

Weddings and events

Coworth Park hosts weddings throughout the year, with ceremonies in the house or on the lawn and receptions in the Mansion House rooms or a marquee in the park. The polo fields and the equestrian centre give space for large outdoor events. Meetings and residential conferences use the house's private rooms, and the whole estate can be taken over by one party. Capacities vary with the room and the marquee, and the hotel sets them case by case.

Location

The estate lies between Ascot and Sunningdale in Berkshire, close to the Surrey border. Ascot racecourse is a five-minute drive, Windsor Castle fifteen, and Heathrow airport about 25 minutes. The nearest railway station is Sunningdale, with trains to London Waterloo in under an hour; Ascot station is a little further. Central London is around an hour by road. For a luxury hotel near Ascot and Windsor, it has the advantage of its own gates: nothing of the road is visible from the house.