28 April, 2010

The most amazing antique-filled hotel in the world

I am in London at the moment and am staying at what I think is the most fantastic hotel I have ever seen. It is called 'Millers Residence' in Notting Hill and is owned by the writer of the 'bible' on antiques, Martin Miller (of Miller's Antiques Guides).

Guest sitting room/parlour - Millers Residence

As you can see it is absolutely filled to the rafters with antiques - fabulous! In the evening, the staff (Mr Miller's daughter Cara) goes around lighting candles and there is an open bar, including Mr Miller's own label of gin. Needless to say I curled up with a big coffee book on 'hip London', a G&T and had a lovely time!

There are lovely touches all around the house - including a vintage chess set, complete with timers, on a table supported by a stack of books - love it!


One of my favourite things was this large ornamental frog which graced the main entrance hallway. It sounds strange to have a frog in a hall way but it really worked - very funky!


The Residence has been used in a number of photo shoots for magazines, including Elle Magazine. In one of the photos they put shoes and bags amongst the antique books - very cute.


My bedroom was also fabulous - all the bedrooms are named after different writers - eg Blake, Wordsworth etc. The name of my room was 'Tennyson' and had a lovely four poster bed. The bed covers were made from a heavy satin fabric and the bed was super comfy (I hate hard beds). It was a pity that my hubby wasn't with me as it was very romantic! (although he is a real minimalist and I think this hotel would be too much for him!)

 'Tennyson' room - divine

 Some of the antiques in the 'Tennyson' bedroom

The hotel is situated in Notting Hill which as you can imagine is very nice - great restaurants and little boutique shops. I was really struck this time around in London at how much better the food and wine is. I also found that in Scotland. I think budget airlines, no matter how much we might dislike them at times, have enabled more and more British to travel to Italy and France and that has really improved the food in the UK. I didn't really get the chance to have a look at the vintage clothes stores on this visit, but my recollection is that the ones on Portobello Road in Notting Hill were fairly over-priced. The same applies to the op-shops. I had a quick look at the op-shops in Notting Hill and they were SERIOUSLY over-priced and did not have any vintage treasure.

If you are interested in reading more about this fabulous hotel, see the website at http://www.millersuk.com/index.html. It was a truly memorable experience, highly recommended!


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