, he has drawn on familial roots in art and psychoanalysis, and his skills in communication and hospitality to create a weekend retreat unlike anything else in West Oxfordshire. Yes, Bull is a gorgeously appointed, jet-set bucolic, boutique hostelry with 18 beautiful rooms and Waystar Royco-grade suites, Saatchi-worthy artwork, deliciously cocooning bed linen and at least four premium dining options. But it is also a rural town sanctuary; a mentally, physically and digitally detoxing environment with luxury, community, conviviality and oxytocin stimulation at its core. How exactly does this rarefied concept of mindfully optimising, warm and fuzzy, one-percenter positivity manifest itself in terms of fixtures and fittings? Extremely nicely, thank you. A bedroom at Bull LEO DOUVAL Interiors are designed by Matthew Freud himself, and project-managed and executed by the events team that creates his Goals House pop-up suites at places like the Davos World Economic Forum, Cannes Lions and Cop28 in Dubai. They avoid cliché, extraneous tat and clutter. More luxe second home than Soho House, the grown-up, unquirky bedrooms ('bedwombs,' someon){kind=link}
The sign outside Bull, on Burford’s high street, is immediately intriguing. Not actually a bovine’s head per se. More a Rorschach-style inkblot of an image that suggests or could be perceived as a cattle cranium. Do you see a bull or a butterfly? Maybe a crab? Or your mother? The unconventional, klecksographic artwork behaves as both sign and psychological test – a gentle introduction to a possible revealing of the various, unconscious parts of one’s personality. It’s something to think about as your car pulls up outside the 16th-century coaching house and your bags are ferried into reception.
This newest addition to the ever-evolving, apparently unstoppable Cotswolds hotel scene is the brainchild of Matthew Freud, the PR supremo, great-grandson of Sigmund and nephew of Lucian. For Bull (there are no definite articles in the title here), he has drawn on familial roots in art and psychoanalysis, and his skills in communication and hospitality to create a weekend retreat unlike anything else in West Oxfordshire.
Yes, Bull is a gorgeously appointed, jet-set bucolic, boutique hostelry with 18 beautiful rooms and Waystar Royco-grade suites, Saatchi-worthy artwork, deliciously cocooning bed linen and at least four premium dining options. But it is also a rural town sanctuary; a mentally, physically and digitally detoxing environment with luxury, community, conviviality and oxytocin stimulation at its core.
How exactly does this rarefied concept of mindfully optimising, warm and fuzzy, one-percenter positivity manifest itself in terms of fixtures and fittings? Extremely nicely, thank you.
Interiors are designed by Matthew Freud himself, and project-managed and executed by the events team that creates his Goals House pop-up suites at places like the Davos World Economic Forum, Cannes Lions and Cop28 in Dubai. They avoid cliche, extraneous tat and clutter. More luxe second home than Soho House, the grown-up, unquirky bedrooms (“bedwombs,” someone very clever says over dinner) offer stealth-wealthy, low-volume, low-lit levels of country modern cosy favouring original beams, dark pink paintwork and boucle textures, Crittal-style glass panels, freestanding bathtubs and huge walk-in showers.