Birch
What is it: A Grade-II listed building in the Hertfordshire countryside transformed into a permanent festival for urban creatives looking for a different kind of escape.
What you need to know: Inheriting a legacy of doing things differently — the property was formerly owned by Lady Valerie Meux, an expert party-thrower whose carriage was famously pulled by zebras and who installed an indoor skating rink (this in the Victorian era) — Birch is a hotel experience consciously aiming at non-conformity. Although it opened during the pandemic, it has since been named by The Times and The Sunday Times as their Hotel of the Year.
Why you’ll love it: It’s a mix. A hotel, a wellness space, a co-working hub, a learning environment, a farm, and outdoors to explore. All the elements of a grown-up playground brought together on a 55-acre estate by the former Managing Director of Ace Hotel London, Chris Penn and entrepreneur Chris King. There’s even an indoor cinema but one with deckchairs, a forest school for the kids so that parents can lie in on Saturday mornings, and an arcade and art room for all ages.
Why we think it’s different: As people who have never found spa breaks relaxing — what do you do and is it even comfortable to sit in slightly damp, overly fluffy gowns — we’re all on board with the idea that curiosity can lead us back to some sort of sanity, that play can present itself as rest, and that being around others who feel that way, can make the serendipitous connections happen that we’re now missing in our lives. Birch offers a program of activities from sculpting clay, blowing glass, and foraging with Farmer Tom. It also offers the chance to get close to what are traditionally behind the scenes elements, wandering into the onsite bakery, butchers, and pottery makers. What we see as classic wellbeing here happens with contemporary twists: wild yoga and gong baths, and classes on how to supercharge your energy with a nutritionist.
At a moment when we’re losing our connections, Birch aims to bring people in and get them back together (in a safe COVID-world way). One word of warning though: don’t make the pressure to do here impact your need to be here. There’s a packed schedule, and there’s also FOMO. Make Birch the place you need to be that weekend, the place that you have found for a few days to give you something you might be missing in that life you left behind. But you don’t have to find all the things at once.
We’re also grateful for the nicely styled nods to supporting mental wellbeing: workshops have been offered by Claire Wilkinson on the therapeutic benefits of floral arrangements, a class on hula hoping was scheduled on world mental health day, and ceramics are available by Emma Louise Payne whose work has supported mental health charity Charlie Waller Trust.
How to bring this into your life: Bring a little bit of Birch home during moments of pause: Follow recipes from Chef Robin Gill, download curated playlists from music curator Louise Young, and take classes from handpicked creatives. If you are local, you can become a Member of the coworking community of like-minded creatives or further afar you can book that hotel night stay midweek and work from The Hub for a change of scene (which we all probably need right now).
In their own words: “Birch is an intervention from the judgments, expectations, and constraints of daily life An escape for explorers. A catalyst for the curious.”
To find out more: Website / Instagram / Facebook
