The Seaside Boarding House

A playful mix of Edward Hopper’s Cape Cod and Edwardian seaside hotel, this white-painted villa above Chesil Beach has an easy-going stylishness, conducive to fun. ‘We arrived at dusk,’ writes a reader, ‘sat outside to view the spectacular sunset, and were brought pots of tea and blankets. Coming in, we had a jolly time in the bar.’ Owners Mary-Lou Sturridge and Tony Mackintosh, who created London’s Groucho Club, have filled the cool, stripped-down interiors with marine salvage, seascapes, Peter Blake prints and antique-shop booty. ‘Bright, light, seaside-y rooms’ all have some view of the coast, a retro dial phone and radio, a walk-in shower or claw-footed bath. ‘Ours had a superb large bed, a bathroom on the floor below with a private internal staircase.’ In the restaurant and on the terrace, with views over Lyme Bay, short, appealing menus might include John Dory, charred lemon, herb butter or perhaps lamb rack with spiced lentils. What our heroic reader ate after leaving the bar is lost to memory, but it was ‘excellent’, he recalls. ‘Charming staff. We would stay again.’ (John Barnes, and others)