The Great Western Railway opened Devon up to tourism in the nineteenth century. With tourists arrived the need for hotels. Initially most were purpose-built railway hotels while in the twentieth century just about any structure was converted: farmhouses, rectories, castles -- and the second homes of the extremely rich who in the interwar period chose to move their own holidays abroad in Biarritz and San Tropez.
Across Magdalene Road from Exeter’s exquisite, neoclassical Southernhays district stands the old West of England Eye Infirmary, which is now the city’s Hotel du Vin. This red brick infirmary is a sister building to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital from 1734. You’ll find that just across the road in Southernhays, next to Wynyard’s fifteenth-century almshouses . In its current red-brick form, the Eye Hospital was designed by the architect Charles Barry, son of the great Sir Charles Barry, who designed pretty much everything in Victorian Britain, from the Houses of Parliament to Highclere Castle (TV’s Downton Abbey) and Cliveden House.
Today much of the Southernhays district has been converted to office use with the occasional wine bar and restaurant. It really is the grandest part of Exeter to stay in
The old eye hospital is an imposing building with an inscribed lintel and a plaque over the door telling us that it doubled as a military hospital during the First World War. The best of the bedrooms is up in what would once have been the nurses’ attic. The Charles Barry Suite itself is a clever conversion of one of its topmost bedrooms on the third floor, with two absolutely tiny terraces facing south across the River Exe into the dark green Devon countryside. It's a superb place for aperitifs.
Dining is in the Bistro du Vin, a large circular arena that lies adjacent to the hotel’s equally circular lawn. Whereas the hotel itself has retained all its right-angled corridors, with plaques to bossy Victorian matrons and lists of draconian visiting hours, the bistro is a place of contemporary fun. Wallpaper is tropical and ceiling lights descend through giant circular tubers that look as if they might devour insects in a more tropical climate. There is also a circular private dining room within the bistro, a circle within a circle.
Out in the ground there are two cottages whose low profiles contrast sweetly with the lofty old hospital. One is a compact but very comfortable spa and the other has recently been converted into what is now known as The Beekeeper’s Cottage.
These days it’s a honeymoon suite away from the main hotel with a country garden in front and even a mock-beehive (constructed by the hotel’s enthusiastic gardener) to give its name credibility."
WHAT TO SEE LOCALLY
"Exeter Cathedral is a five-minute walk from Hotel du Vin north along Southernhays. There are signs that take you under the quaint Victorian Burnet Patch Bridge (the first iron bridge in Exeter) to this stately early-fifteenth-century cathedral. High above you it has the longest uninterrupted medieval stone vaulted ceiling in the world. Admission is not cheap (£7.50) so plan on spending enough time to get your money’s worth."
