Hotel Hit Squad: Knoll House remains much the same as when Enid Blyton stayed there – but change is in the air
I’ve just been shown to my bedroom at Knoll House, and what a thrill. An enormous suite, you ask? A spa bath, perhaps? Antiques, fine paintings, silk hangings and a king-size bed?
Indeed not. My plain but serviceable room (think Premier Inn with wicker chairs) offers something much more unusual than that. Two things, in fact: the sea view from the window that takes my breath away, and the framed and illustrated bit of history on the wall that takes me straight back to my childhood. For this, it tells me, is room No 40, the one that Enid Blyton stayed in up to four times a year in the Fifties and Sixties and where she found inspiration for her Famous Five.
We have a connection, Enid and I, however slight. I read her books, of course, as a child, but I didn’t much take to them, for I was rather frightened of the author. In the town of Beaconsfield, where she lived at her large house, Green Hedges, from 1938 until her death in 1968, she was our neighbour and I would often see her, unsmiling and stern, I thought, riding her bicycle past our house.
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Doubtless Enid Blyton, whom I do not recall as a stylish woman, would delight in the public rooms as they are today, almost anarchic in their dowdiness.
Now I’m in her favourite bedroom at her beloved Knoll House. She was not alone in adoring the hotel; back in the day, many families returned year after year with their children and grandchildren – some still do. But the Ferguson family, who ran it for nearly 60 years, sold up in 2017 and now it is owned by tourism and leisure company Kingfisher, which has plans afoot for major resort-style expansion. Of course it does – the location of Knoll House overlooking Studland Bay is nothing short of sensational. I wish the hotel could have stayed in private hands, but, hey, that’s progress.
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Until that day comes, Knoll House remains much as Enid Blyton knew it, only minus the more endearing eccentricities of Britain’s original child (and canine) friendly hotel, one that used to employ debutantes as staff and where aristocratic children were sent for their holidays, accompanied only by their nannies.
Under the new ownership, the children and nannies’ dining room has become a bistro. Gone is the gong for dinner, and the hardcore mealtimes (breakfast 8-8.45am, lunch 1-1.30pm, dinner 7.30-8.15pm) have been relaxed. The spruced-up (though hardly luxurious) bedrooms now have keys for their plain wooden doors. They even have televisions, for heaven’s sake, and Elemis toiletries. When I was last here, washing your hair meant buying a bottle of Head & Shoulders from reception, and hairdryers were emphatically not supplied. Modern accoutrements were never the Fergusons’ thing. I remember them telling me that “trouser presses will never make an appearance here – we don’t go in for the latest trends”, a good decade after they had fallen out of fashion and been eradicated from most hotel bedrooms.
Doubtless Enid Blyton, whom I do not recall as a stylish woman, would delight in the public rooms as they are today, almost anarchic in their dowdiness. In the vast, square, sparsely populated dining room, approached by a corridor lined by annual “school” photos of the entire staff, the food looks as if it has died on your plate and there isn’t even the promise of the sweet trolley of yore. But there are plenty of other distractions: the pirate ship playground, playroom, games room, golf course, swimming pool, tennis courts, outdoor activities centre, gardens shaded by tall pines and, best of all, the fields that lead to the beach on Studland Bay with its peerless views of Old Harry Rocks.
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Most discerning families flock nowadays to the buzzing Pig on the Beach just along the road, and so they should – with one caveat. Here at Knoll House there’s always been a tranquil, even serene atmosphere, unusual for a family hotel, and a particular blessing for harassed parents. Decades of routine have achieved that quality, and it hasn’t yet been lost.
But still, the heart has almost gone out of Knoll House and the new owners are plainly coasting before calling time. Their defensive attitude – not the usual stance of a hotelier – is strange. I’ve been reviewing hotels for longer than Noddy hung out with Big Ears but this is the first time I’ve been sent a “polite request” to focus my review on certain aspects of the hotel (“hidden gem, home from home”) and, presumably (although not specified) to gloss over others. Sorry, no. Don’t try to nanny me, Knoll House.
Studland Bay (01929 450450; knollhouse.co.uk). Dinner, B&B from £140 to £345 per room, per night. Access possible for guests using wheelchairs.
• Read the full review: Knoll House
