Kathryn Drysdale’s Regency Escape: Where Past Meets Present

“With its quiet splendour, entering The Royal Crescent really does feel like stepping into a Bridgerton set” says Kathryn. “Prince Frederick, the Duke of York [the favourite son of King George III] lived here and it’s so grand you do feel like you could be staying with the duke.”

Kathryn first visited the hotel about 18 years ago and was delighted when filming for Bridgerton took her back to Bath. Now she’s here with her partner, in a room with a view over the famous architectural arc – though the interiors are catching her eye too. “Everything’s so refined with high ceilings, tall sash windows and four-poster bed along with beautiful textures and duck-egg blue colours. I love the antiques and the paintings on the walls. It’s not perhaps the place a modiste would live but for a Bridgerton, it’s just right.”

It’s the couple’s base for two nights as they see the city’s sights, touring the Roman Baths and the Jane Austen Centre, where they take tea with a photograph of Mr Darcy behind them. “It’s nice to see Colin Firth’s face again – I acted with him in St Trinian’s,” laughs Kathryn. And of course, they visit the Abbey Deli, which doubles as the modiste’s shop in Bridgerton, and which sports photographs of Kathryn in its window display.

Back at The Royal Crescent, they feel thoroughly cosseted, relaxing in the boutique spa beyond a garden that feels “secret and zen-like”, enjoying the elegant surroundings and tucking into a six-course tasting menu. “Even the bread tastes out of this world,” says Kathryn, confessing that her partner orders three lots of the hotel’s milk bread. “He is vegetarian and loves the amount of choice open to him. The food is incredible – we just want to eat and eat. I think the breakfast is the best I’ve ever had in a hotel. The avocado is so fresh, bright and green.”

After two nights, they set off for Bishopstrow Hotel & Spa, a 40-minute drive away. Although it was designed by John Pinch the Elder, who was responsible for many of Bath’s Georgian buildings, Bishopstrow has a totally different feel thanks in no small part to what the hotel calls its ‘modern-day sass’. “It blends the Regency look with a contemporary element, particularly with the colourful décor,” Kathryn notes.

“It’s in the Wiltshire countryside with stunning gardens that lead down to the river and is the type of place a Bridgerton character would retreat to after the social season was over. It’s all calm and countryside.”

There is still plenty of history here, starting with the Neolithic burial mounds in the 18th-century gardens, one of which they can see from their room. Yet there are spoiling modern comforts too, including their own outdoor hot tub.

And the couple enjoy the gym, trying both the indoor and the outdoor sauna as well as taking a dip in the large pool “where you can do proper lengths”. By the time dinner time comes round, they feel they have worked off enough of the food from The Royal Crescent before tucking into “a whole feast of a meal” again.

One final treat awaits. “After dinner, we take a dip in the hot tub and enjoy views of the night sky. It’s a lovely way to wind down, with a cup of hot cocoa,” says Kathryn.

There is also plenty of space to chill out in Calcot & Spa’s sprawling estate set around a 14th-century farmhouse a 40-minute drive north of Bath in Gloucestershire. “It’s very much got the feel of a relaxed country house with its beautiful, honeyed stone, exposed beams and a contemporary spa,” Kathryn summarises. “The bedrooms are in muted colours and earthy tones with a certain rusticity to them and there’s a big sense of being in the Cotswolds.

“There’s an intimacy to it, a cosiness – while at the Royal Crescent, they treat you as a member of the Royal Family, at Calcot, you feel like you’re part of their family. And it has the best gym we’ve ever visited in a hotel. My partner’s a personal trainer and he says it’s one of the best gyms he’s ever trained in full stop, let alone in a hotel. It has two floors and there’s a fitness studio so you can take a class while you’re there.”

They spend a lot of time here, not just working out on the machines, but also in the workstations in the café reception area, drinking smoothies and mushroom coffee.  “I even manage to learn my lines for a job in a quiet corner,” says Kathryn.

The food is good too, “very farm to table with lots of fresh, local produce”. And at the end of dinner, there’s a special surprise – a chocolate birthday dessert for Kathryn, complete with a candle. It’s not her only indulgence; she also enjoys breakfast in bed. “It’s a lovely treat and the full English is so yummy”.

Although the hotel is incredibly family friendly it’s also “very much somewhere where you can enjoy a romantic break together, particularly if you are looking for a wellness break”. And it’s perfectly situated for Kathryn to pop into Tetbury to browse the antique shops.