In return for our help with rehousing their museum in the Wardrobe (which had been empty for some time and needed expensive repairs), the (now disbanded) Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment allowed us to form a flat high up in the attics. Here, approached by a seventeenth-century staircase, are three lofty rooms, each with a different outlook. The Landmark prides itself on the views from its many windows, but the view from the sitting room here of the cathedral is one of the best of all, whether by day or by night, when it seems to be floodlit expressly for one’s benefit.

The Wardrobe, which contains traces of a substantial medieval hall, was once the Bishop’s storehouse, and so got its name. It has been a house since before 1600, mostly let by the Dean and Chapter to laymen, who formed in it some very handsome rooms, now part of the museum. One family, the Husseys, must have used our attics as a nursery, since during our building work we discovered toys, and even a manuscript novel by a 13-year-old Victorian daughter.

All cathedral closes have a special quality, but this is one of the very best, a succession of beautiful houses ranged round the only English cathedral built at one go. Those who stay at the Wardrobe share, with the museum, the use of a long walled garden, which runs down to the swift and silent Avon.

View our history sheet for this Landmark

Sleeps: 4