Updown, near Deal in Kent, is feasibly that scene you have in your mind’s eye whenever you imagine escaping to the country, taking on a rambling, 17th-century farmhouse in need of lots of TLC and living the dream. A dream being as far as such things go for most sane people, after weighing up the costs, the sacrifices and the ever-present danger of a visit from a fractious Kevin “McLoud”.
Occasionally, however, people do make that leap, and something magical happens. Updown, by Ruth Leigh and Oli Brown, is set in seven-and-a-half acres, with well-tended walled gardens and, now, a restaurant with seven rooms for overnight stays. Presently, there’s only an outdoor dining area with a pergola, meaning you can eat john dory with samphire or pork chop with fennel gratin among the butterflies. Next year, however, an indoor space will open in the barn. Updown, which was bought and renovated over lockdown, is deeply antagonistic to those of us who can barely change a lightbulb, because somehow Leigh and Brown have taken this Grade II-listed building and created one of those quintessentially British, rural settings that matches how American screenwriters believe we all live: endless days perusing dusty, arty tomes in our boldly painted libraries, padding about in our bohemian country piles, wellies at the back door, before lunching on a plate of local radishes with sea salt and butter and a glass of cloudy, homemade lemonade.
