Gloucester Place - Review Page 2
Guest House Accommodation
The main house offers three double bedrooms, provided on bed and breakfast terms. The house is comfortable and spacious and decorated throughout with wonderful mementos of the owner’s travels, including magnificent carvings, rugs and wall hangings from places as diverse as Venezuela, India and Sri Lanka. One is very aware that Gloucester Place is also a home and this serves to make the stay very much more personal and intimate than the typical antiseptic hotel experience.
Concord Suite
All three guest rooms are located on the upper floor of the property. Concord will arguably prove the most popular room, if only because it situated at the front of the house and offers the best views. With overall floor dimensions of 21m2 (225sq.ft.), enhanced by the high cathedral ceiling common to all three guest rooms, the room is adequately spacious. The room opens directly onto a large veranda that overlooks the sea in two directions.
The dark-stained Queen-sized wooden bed flanked by matching bedside tables and reading lamps is highly impressive. The tiled floor is relieved with a lovely Asian rug – several ofwhich can be seen around the house – and complimenting the wall 
hanging behind the bed. A single padded armchair is the only other furnishing, apart from a large wardrobe unit with dressing table top, storage drawers and a half-length mirror. The wardrobe has only half-length hanging space, but to be frank there are no formal restaurants within an hour’s drive of the house so guests are unlikely to have formal attire or clothing that might require full-length hanging.
The en suite bathroom is discreetly hidden behind the wardrobe and includes a large washbasin set into a wooden vanity unit (with lots of storage space), a low-level flush toilet and a walk-in shower. As you would expect at this level of accommodation, both hot and cold water are provided in all rooms. Water pressure was good and we did not experience any shortage of hot water. Shaver sockets and an electric hairdryer are provided in each room.
All three guest rooms are fitted with Toshiba split-unit air-conditioning units. These are virtually noiseless and must rank amongst the finest a/c units available.
Rooms in both the main house and Essex Cottage are serviced weekly and mid-weekly, or more often when requested. Linen and towels were clearly new and of high quality. Beach towels are available on request.
Carlisle Suite
Comparible in overall size to Concord, the Carlisle Suite is located on the western side of the house and looks directly out over the sea. The room is furnished with a Queen-sized bed and matching bedside tables in the same stocky style of dark-stained furniture as the other two rooms.Although they are unlikely to have originated in Asia, they are similar to styles I have seen in India and so are very appropriate given the furnishing in all three rooms. The silk hangings in Carlisle are particularly superb and most definitely originated in the Indian sub-Continent.
A 5-drawer wardrobe with carved wall-hanging mirror supplements the main wardrobe, which offers 1.2m of half-length hanging space. The adjacent bathroom provides the usual trio of facilities described in more detail in the description for the Concord suite.
Leading off the room is a 2.75 x 1.75m private balcony that offers simply superb views out to sea and behind, over the mountains of the Main Ridge Rainforest Reserve.
Lexington Suite
Marginally larger than the other rooms, Lexington is furnished with two single beds or, optionally, a King-size double. All other accoutrements and furnishings for this room are the same as in the other rooms.
Being on the eastern side of the house, the only sea views are from the window in the shower. The room does, however, have a veranda that runs the length of the suite and provides direct access to the large veranda outside Concord and the steps down to the rear garden.
Catering
Dining in such a small property is an intimate affair. This is not meant as a criticism; just the opposite. The cooking is excellent and you can be assured that you’ll get your eggs exactly the way you like them and enjoy a hearty breakfast that will truly set you up for the day.
Given the absence of restaurants in the region, the owners try to be as flexible as possible. The rooms have no self-catering facilities, but fridge space is made available for guests. Similarly, depending upon the levels of occupancy, it is often possible to arrange for other meals, in addition to breakfast.
General Facilities
Guests will undoubtedly spend a large portion of their time on the ground floor main balcony. Fully shaded from all but the late afternoon sun, the views from the balcony are absolutely stunning. The myriad colours of the sea breaking onto the rocks below are mesmerising.
Although the first floor library is technically a private area, guests are allowed to use the room for access to the Internet, satellite TV and more books than you could read in a year or two.
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