Arctic culture and climate Exhibition
The final straws on the property’s thatched roof had only been in place a second before friends from London to Los Angeles returned with rave reviews. One pal, a Hollywood casting agent, rhapsodised over the hotel’s attention to detail, ‘right down to the embroidered hair dryer and slipper bags.’ A Brooklyn-based couple – both photographers – messaged me that it’s ‘the quirky country retreat of their dreams’ and they’d move there if only they knew something about raising chickens. Louche, quirky, chickens – I was sold.
Artist Residence Oxfordshire is in a rural village called South Leigh (population: 336), on the edge of the Cotswolds. The place is perhaps most famous for eccentric former local, Gerry Stonhill, who took on Tony Blair’s smoking ban a decade ago and defiantly paid a citation entirely in coppers (more on him later). Though the area feels remote, it’s incredibly easy to access from London. I hop on a train from Paddington, which takes an hour to get to Hanborough. From there it’s a 10-minute cab ride before I pull into the hotel’s gravel drive. A pair of petite penguin statues greet me and I spot a door with an embossed metal sign reading: ‘NO RIFF RAFF’. It appears they’ve been forewarned.