A night at Birch Community
Birch Community
The beautiful Grade II listed Georgian building set within 55 acres of land is located just 10 miles north of London in Hertfordshire and minutes off the M25, making it an easy countryside escape. We were warmly welcomed by Operations Director Andrè Mannini who kindly took the time to tell us all about its rich history. Most recently it was De Vere Theobalds estate, and has now been taken over by Birch’s founders Chris King and Chris Penn (former Managing Director of US brand Ace Hotels). Their mission was to ‘reuse and repair the existing site’s materials, stripping back clutter to create more thoughtful spaces’, leaving many of the building’s quirks exposed.
Stepping into the grand entrance at Birch, you immediately want to photograph the beautiful mosaic floor and sweeping staircase luring you in. We walked to reception, bypassing a roaring open fire and french doors which look out onto a lawn featuring a huge tipi tent, fire pits and fairy lights. Finally making our way to the reception desk, we received our key and headed to our bedroom.
It is refreshing to see that the hotel’s 140 bedrooms, which start from £150 per night, are minimally designed, meaning “no noisy TVs or boring desks. Just warm, well-crafted and carefully considered rooms” to encourage guests to relax and switch off says Birch. There is a small selection of bedrooms, ranging from small and cosy to large and light and all come nicely equipped with brand new Simba mattresses, so you are guaranteed a cosy night sleep. You will not find towels shaped as swans on the bed here, beauty amenities, a telephone to call reception to order room service or even a kettle - which might be an unpleasant surprise at first – but thankfully, it pushes you to head out to discover hidden pockets of the space and find new comforts. The standard ‘Dial 1 for reception’ has been upgraded to a WhatsApp service where you can contact their “Placemakers” 24/7 - staff that are there to help you whenever you need it. You need an iron? call them, need a fresh towel? text them. We loved this concept. It’s not what we have experienced before, but it is how things are at Birch. Accessible and informal.
Wellness and events are at the heart of Birch. Guests are able to take part in a range of workshops and experiences, from gong baths, yoga, sourdough bread making to pottery classes and glassblowing. We peeked into a dark room where people of all ages were sat in deck chairs watching a Wes Anderson movie via a projector. Hours can be lost in the art room, games room, music room which features a piano, classical guitars and an electric drum kit, and the onsite bakery where anyone can pop on an apron and take part in a drop-in bread making session with the bakers. Waking up and baking your own croissant? Count us in.
It is great to see that Birch welcomes remote workers who are desperately seeking a change of scenery, to their co-working space The Hub. Here you will find an abundance of desks, quiet working rooms with a plethora of seating options, an unlimited amount of charging points!, a coffee spot for your daily fix of caffeine and a place to grab tasty food. Staff in the evening came over to inform us that their lighting will soon be dimmed. These little gestures remind you that you are in a place that understands what a modern hot-desker requires.
Birch have a pay as you go policy, so you will pay at the time of order. They believe this avoids any unnecessary check-out nonsense, which we can all most certainly relate to. There are QR codes on every menu dotted throughout the space inside and out, which work seamlessly (if you have a smart phone on you!). Open your camera to scan the code to see the menus, choose your food and drink, select your location, add your credit card and voilà, surely enough it will arrive to your exact location. This laid-back concept is a running theme throughout Birch and is a dream when you are behind your laptop on a Zoom call and fancy a Negroni.
For the foodie, taste buds are happily satisfied at the Zebra Riding Club - their restaurant featuring a £48 tasting menu curated by London Chef Robin Gill. The concept is led by nature and uses the farm, wood and produce surrounding it throughout the year and is open to all for lunch and dinner but you will need to book in advance. For the more casual diner, there is ‘Valeries’ - their all-day dining restaurant in the middle of the Mansion House offering pastas, salads and grilled goodies.
We believe that there is something for everyone here. You will find city folk with thick rim glasses behind laptops sipping large glasses of wine, country couples playing scrabble on a couch, families playing with their dogs in the gardens and artists drawing their subjects by an open fire place. An endearing clash of cultures, all with an underlying ‘community’ feel which brings it all together. There is no division. All tastes are merged. Young to old, classic to modern. It takes a moment to digest it all. We gasped as we walked through the beautiful 257-year-old original mosaic entrance, following a gentleman with a pooch in one hand and muddy wellies on his feet, walking up a sweeping staircase to his room, but we soon accepted that this is the norm here.
The Birch hotel, as co-founder Penn expresses, “isn’t really a hotel at all”, it’s a place for people to play, explore and be a community. To us, it feels like a Neverland for creatives and escape artists, a ‘space that looks like a hotel but feels like a festival’ where you are free to be who you are - young, old or pooch.
Memberships are available with a £200 joining fee and then a monthly fee of £120. Perks include access to the co-working space, The Hub, unlimited access to the cultural events program, working out in the Wellness Space and weekly drinks every Thursday. There are member rates and discounts on food, stay, events and much more.