Locals claim that Winston Churchill, the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson were once fans of the Cooden Beach Hotel, no doubt drawn here by the panoramic views across Pevensey Bay towards Beachy Head on East Sussex’s coast. Today, the hotel hopes to lure a new generation of seaside holidaymakers. Having been taken over in 2021 by the hotelier Grace Leo’s Relais Retreats group, the renamed Relais Cooden Beach’s 45 rooms and public spaces have been strikingly refurbished.
From the outside, the late-1920s mock-Tudor building has an air of London’s Liberty department-store-by-the-sea about it. Only the palm trees hint at the reworked interiors by the French designer Pascal Allaman: inside is a mash-up of Palm Springs-style mid-century modern and classic British seaside guesthouse.
It is bold: bedrooms are themed in either orange or blue with wide zig-zag striped carpets. In our room, 202, at the top of the building, orange featured in the curtain trims and the edging of the chair cushions too. The wood-panelled headboard over the kingsize bed, blond wood side tables and bathrooms with black fittings and white tiles prevent it from tipping into over-the-top.
The hotel’s showpiece is the restaurant downstairs, which feels like a Miami beach club thanks to floor-to-ceiling windows, upholstered chairs and benches, blue glassware and – of course – orange-trimmed napkins. Food is bistro-style big plates with a seafood focus and ingredients are caught locally where possible. While my prawn, clam and mussel-stacked risotto was hearty, it was the Romney Marsh lamb chops – hunks of perfectly soft, pink meat – that impressed most.
A drink by the bar’s circular fireplace, then a game of pool at a fancy table with leather pockets, rounded off the evening – although I’m blaming Bilal the barman’s negronis for my losing two games.