
The warning is in plain sight on a sign outside Bull: “a curious coaching inn”. And indeed, this is no everyday pub quietly hidden in the heart of the Cotswolds. As Alice might have noted of this new hospitality wonderland, it does actually get curiouser and curiouser the moment you step over the threshold.
Don’t for a minute think “quaint”, in spite of the ancient heritage, when you pull up at this pub in Burford, quite possibly the most beautiful town in the Cotswolds; this 18-room hotel turns the concept of an English pub on its head. Matthew Freud, the PR tycoon and commercial strategist turned pub landlord, adds much zen, zip and zaniness to his modern reinvention of the country pub hotel.