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< Back to our Holiday ideas page 
Historic City Breaks
There has never been a better time to holiday in Britain. With so much to history to explore, why not stay in a Landmark within one of our most historic cities?
What better way to end a hard day's sightseeing than by staying within the city's heritage and keeping that sense of history all around you.
LondonCloth Fair - No. 43 & No. 45 Smithfield, London EC1
Cloth Fair is a fine Georgian house facing the churchyard of St Bartholomew the Great in the historic City of London. In spite of its central location, between St Paul's and Barbican, it is an oasis of relative calm, especially at weekends. There is here a lingering feel of how alive the whole City of London once was before it was destroyed by money, fire and war - a place where long-established institutions, trades, houses, markets and people of all kinds mingled together. Each of the apartments has a respectable staircase, pleasant rooms and nice old joinery. No. 43 was long the home of Sir John Betjeman.
No. 43 Cloth Fair is for 2 people and No. 45 is for up to 4 people. Check availability and book here.
Princelet Street Spitalfields, London E1
Begun in 1718, Princelet Street contains some of the earliest speculative housing in the area, built to accommodate the influx of French Protestants, know as Huguenots, washed here by the tide of events. Today Princelet Street is a quiet street with many of its original buildings. The City of London is but a background hum, yet the Thames, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge are all less than a mile away. Hawksmoor's Christ Church, built in the same years as Princelet Street and now magnificently restored, stands on the corner, and Norman Foster's 30 St Mary Axe (better known as the Gherkin) is not much farther away. The sleek cliffs of modernist glass along Bishopsgate stand in lieu of the city walls to contrast and complement the more intimate scale of the Spitalfields streets. At the end of Princelet Street is the colour and bustle of Brick Lane. It is an area of festivals and markets, cafes and alleyways, where you will bridge continents and centuries with ease.
Princelet Street is a house of four storeys and accommodates up to 6 people. Check availability and book here.
East Molesey, Surrey
Hampton Court Palace is no empty museum, but a large a thriving community, following a tradition set by George III, who allowed loyal servants to live here by Grace and Favour. Now home mainly to institutions and only a few residents, the sense of a secret life beyond the public eye survives - of doors leading to invisible corridors, of figures disappearing up a staircase with briefcase or shopping basket.
The opportunity we offer our visitors, on behalf of Historic Royal Palaces, is to become part of this life, to go past the security barrier, to make yourself at home in a palace. Once the home of Henry VIII, Hampton Court is so much a part of Britain's history that it needs almost no introduction. The details are best learned there, slowly and at first hand: our visitors are free to explore the gardens and most of the courtyard at all times, early and late, and the public rooms of the palace during opening hours.
Fish Court is for up to 6 people and The Georgian House is for up to 8 people. Hampton Court Palace is only around 30 minutes by train from central London and all the sights. Check availability and book here.
Bath
Beckford's Tower Lansdown Road, Bath
Born immensely rich, William Beckford (1760-1844) became a collector, patron, writer and eccentric builder. But he was also indiscreet in his private life and, cold-shouldered by English Society, he lived in Bath as a recluse. Each morning, accompanied by his dwarf and a pack of spaniels, Beckford would ride up to his Tower to play with his treasures in its opulent rooms. After Beckford's death the Tower became a chapel and its grounds an elegant cemetery. The Tower was restored by the Beckford Tower Trust, who offered us the ground floor flat. We have made a Landmark to recreate the layout and something of the flavour of Beckford's interiors, especially in the sumptuous Scarlet Drawing Room. And like him, those who stay here can climb the fine circular staircase to the "Belvidere" just below the elaborate, gilded lantern and enjoy, all to themselves, what Beckford called "the finest prospect in Europe".
Beckford's Tower accommodates up to 4 people, and sits on a hill about 1.5 miles from the centre of Bath. There is adjacent parking. Check availability and book here.
Elton House Abbey Street, Bath
Elton House overlooks Abbey Green in the centre of Bath. It was given to us, with much desirable furniture, by Miss Philippa Savery, a gallant campaigner for the city's preservation. The earliest part of it dates from just before 1700, but it was subsequently enlarged and re-fronted, becoming by 1750 a handsome robust building on several floors, with a fine staircase and excellent joinery, arranged as a set of lodgings. Thereafter the fashionable world moved up the hill, away from Abbey Green; part of the ground floor became a shop and the rest of the house stayed as it was. It is therefore something of a rarity, even for Bath.
Elton House covers the top three storeys of the building and accommodates up to 10 people. Check availability and book here.
Marshal Wade's House Abbey Churchyard, Bath
This is a sophisticated building of about 1720 in the very centre of the city. Once there were others like it, but they have gone, taking with them the reputation of good architects practicing in Bath before the more famous Woods eclipsed their contributions. They must have found a good patron in George Wade (made Field Marshal in 1744) who was the city's MP. The second-floor rooms have good panelling, and all the windows look along the west front of Bath Abbey. From here, on a level with the angels, you can see the great carving of Jacob's ladder. There is also an exceptional view from the bathroom on the third floor, and from the bath. All around there are more good things to see within walking distance than almost anywhere in Britain. Leave your car behind, come by train, live over the shop and just be in Bath.
Marshal Wade's House occupies the second and third floor of the building, and is accessed by narrow, steep stairs. It accommodates up to 4 people. Check availability and book here.
OxfordThe Steward's House St Michael's Street, Oxford
Oxford has more architectural pleasures and surprises than anywhere else in Britain, and nowhere else has so much spirit and energy been expended, often in marvellously silly ways. When, therefore, the Oxford Union Society needed money to repair their first debating chamber (now the library) we asked if, in return for a contribution, a place could be found where our visitors could stay. In return for helping them we have a self-contained floor and a half in the former official residence of the Steward of the Union. His spacious home is a thoroughgoing Edwardian affair, and of a kind and quality we are pleased to look after; and our generously proportioned rooms, particularly the sitting-room will give you a true impression of the Oxford of that day, while the vigorous activities of modern Oxford, and of the modern Union, take place around you.
The Steward's House is a flat in central Oxford and accommodates 2 people. Check availability and book here.
The Old Parsonage Iffley, Oxford
Not only an important building in its own right, this house also conveys a strong impression of a parson's life in former days. A rectory was first built here at the same time as the elaborate Norman church a few yards away. In about 1500, a smart new wing was added, and in it are handsome rooms that you can occupy. Some of them were later panelled and given new fireplaces. In the parlour is a tremendous Latin inscription running around the room. It says, in tall Gothic letters, "For we know that, if our earthly house were destroyed, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Here, within its dark temporal panels, you may sit looking down the garden, as did many a scholarly leisured parson, pondering his sermon as he watched the Thames slide by.
The Old Parsonage is located in Iffley village, around 2 miles from Oxford city centre, and is available for up to 6 people. Check availability and book here.
Edinburgh (Roslin)Roslin is about 6 miles, or 30 minutes bus ride, south of Edinburgh.
Collegehill House Roslin, Near Edinburgh
Many famous travellers have found rest at Collegehill House, former inn and de facto gatehouse to Rosslyn Chapel, a Renaissance jewel lying just over the garden wall and inspiration for many an artist and also the occasional novelist. Boswell and Dr Johnson, Robbie Burns and Francis Grose, J.M.W. Turner and the Wordsworths - even Queen Victoria found hospitality here. Built in the eighteenth century, Roslin became a popular destination for amateur lady painters on day trips from Edinburgh (and the Rosslyn Chapel is once again a magnet for visitors thanks to The Da Vinci Code). On the first floor of the house is a grand drawing-room; it is easy enough to conjure up all these many and varied visitors to Roslin as you loll in your armchair with one of the finest expositions of the mason's craft framed in your window.
Collegehill House is available for up to 6 people. Check availability and book here.
Rosslyn Castle Roslin, Near Edinburgh
Most of the castle was built around 1450 by the great William, Prince of Orkney, who lived at Rosslyn in regal state, dining off gold and silver. It was he who built the extraordinary ornament-encrusted chapel of St Matthew at Roslin, one of the wonders of Scotland.
The older fortifications survive only as ruins, but shortly before 1600, Sir William Sinclair replaced the east curtain wall with a more comfortable dwelling, but one which still contains an element of drama. On one side a modest two storey building, on the other it drops five storeys down the side of the rock to reach the ground 60 feet below.
Rosslyn Castle accommodates up to 7 people. Check availability and book here.
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Whether living for a few days as royalty in Rosslyn Castle, near Edinburgh, or returning home down echoing streets and back-alleys to Cloth Fair in central London, staying in a Landmark will offer new perspectives on each city.
