Owlpen Manor, Gloucestershire
With medieval origins and largely built in Tudor times, Owlpen Manor is deeply revered in Arts and Crafts circles. In the 1920s, architect Norman Jewson bought and restored it alongside key Arts and Crafts figure Ernest Gimson, furniture maker and architect, using traditional methods and craftspeople trained by Morris. Still privately owned, Owlpen has a collection of nine self-catering cottages to rent, all of which are dog-friendly, and an estate to explore with miles of glorious woodland walks close at hand. The house – still with its original furnishings – is also open to groups.
Three nights from £312; owlpen.com
Broad Leys, Cumbria
A masterpiece by Charles Voysey, one of the Arts and Crafts movement’s favourite architects, and originally created for the family of a Wakefield magnate, Broad Leys is now the home of the Windermere Motor Boat Racing Club. However, during the week (and occasional weekend), anyone can stay in this mansion with its elegant curved bay windows and panoramic views across Windermere. The Lake District has some of Britain’s most celebrated Arts and Crafts architecture. Blackwell, one of the UK’s Arts and Crafts masterpieces and designed by Baillie Scott, is a 20-minute walk away, but there’s plenty to enjoy here.
Doubles from £135, including breakfast and temporary club membership; wmbrc.co.uk
Roman Camp Hotel, Stirlingshire
Given a coating of romance by young architect Gerald Dunnage in the late 1890s, this mix of buildings and turrets is a fairytale Arts and Crafts gem. There are beautiful gardens leading down to the River Teith, a historic chapel and a pretty stone and timbered garden room. This tranquil refuge from the modern world now has two restaurants, one with three rosettes and the other, in typical Arts and Crafts style, fashioned from the house’s original potting shed.
B&B doubles from £140; romancamphotel.co.uk
Standen House, West Sussex
In 1891, Philip Webb was asked to build a house for a wealthy Birmingham family; the result typified the Arts and Crafts ethos, from a love of history to the integrity of simple design and the importance of setting. Now owned by the National Trust, with William Morris furnishings and wallpaper alongside new-fangled electric lights, the Morris Apartment sleeps four people and continues Standen’s atmosphere with its furnishings, leaded windows and a sense of careful informality rather than grandeur.
From £536 for two nights; nationaltrust.org.uk
Beach House, Hampshire
Built in 1897 by Arnold Mitchell, this Grade II-listed building near Lymington has 14 bedrooms, swathes of sunny seaside charm and views across to the Isle of Wight. An idyllic spot a stone’s throw from the beach, it’s a draw at any time of year for Arts and Crafts fans with its woodland-inspired stained-glass windows by Oscar Paterson and fires with William De Morgan tiles.
Doubles from £180, room only; beachhousemilfordonsea.co.uk
Winsford Cottage Hospital, Devon
Another masterpiece by Charles Voysey, who designed everything in this former hospital, from the verandas so patients could sit in the sun to the motifs of hearts and trees on the windows and doors. Using his trademark white and green, the building has a graceful simplicity and now belongs to the Landmark Trust, which has converted it to sleep up to six people.
Four nights start from £734; landmarktrust.org.uk
Llangoed Hall, Brecon Beacons
As well as creating Portmeirion, Clough Williams-Ellis rebuilt this mansion near Hay-on-Wye in 1912, blending its Jacobean remains with Arts and Crafts galleries and staircases. In the 1980s, Bernard, husband of designer Laura Ashley, rescued it. Now independently owned, it has a significant art collection, plus 23 bedrooms and an acclaimed restaurant.
Rooms with dinner and B&B from £360; llangoedhall.co.uk
Jesmond Dene House, Newcastle
Largely created by Norman Shaw in 1871 for a local arms manufacturer, this mansion showcases British Arts and Crafts at its most exuberant with its panelling, plasterwork, stone carvings and stained glass; a glorious historical mashup. Now a hotel in Newcastle’s smartest residential area, like all key Arts and Crafts houses it’s surrounded by a large garden.
B&B doubles from £125; jesmonddenehouse.co.uk
Russells of Broadway, Worcestershire
In the first part of the 20th century, Broadway became the most important area for Arts and Crafts furniture-making in the Cotswolds when Gordon Russell set up a design business here. His former showroom is now a restaurant with rooms, mixing the building’s 16th-century bones with contemporary touches and original Russell furniture. It’s close to some of the Cotswolds’ most important sites, including William Morris’s home at Kelmscott Manor and the Gordon Russell Museum in Broadway itself.
B&B doubles from £165; russellsofbroadway.co.uk
The Mackintosh Building, Perthshire
Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Scotland’s most acclaimed Arts and Crafts architect, was commissioned by a local draper and ironmonger to build this house in the Highlands village of Comrie in 1904, a period when he was doing some of his very best work. Whitewashed and with a turret, the flat above the shop was taken over by the Landmark Trust in the 1980s. Still with most of Mackintosh’s design details intact, it sleeps four and has furniture from early 20th-century British designers, including Heal’s and Baillie Scott.
Three nights from £431; landmarktrust.org.uk.
