RESTAURANT REVIEW
DINE IN STYLE Louise Hoffman enjoys Georgian elegance, refined flavours and laid-back luxury in the restaurant at Bedford Lodge Hotel & Spa, Newmarket Images ALEXANDER PARNELL T urning in through the gates to Bedford Lodge Hotel & Spa, sweeping round the driveway and taking in the most perfect Indeed, the hotel’s proximity to this equine epicentre is a big draw for many guests, but it’s also supremely accessible for Cambridge residents, being located just off the A11 and A14. The hotel has quite a horsey history
In fact, the latter’s lessee – notorious owner, breeder and amateur jockey George Alexander Baird, who was known as ‘The Squire’ – lends his nickname to the hotel’s restaurant, into which I was now being warmly welcomed. With a laid-back jazz soundtrack, elegant menu, high ceilings and beautiful wall of windows that reminded me of a Humphry Repton orangery, it’s little wonder that racegoers choose Squires Restaurant to enhance their Newmarket experience. Likewise, couples, families
view of this elegant Georgian building across the lawn, I felt as if I should be arriving in a chaise and four. This was heightened by the brightly coloured hats and dazzling dresses of the Ladies Day fashionistas who had gathered for a suitably sophisticated lunch on day one of the Debenhams July Festival at nearby Newmarket Racecourse.
of its own. First built around 1820 as a private hunting lodge for John Russell, the sixth Duke of Bedford, it then passed through the hands of a succession of racing VIPs before becoming a hotel, including racehorse owners Sir Joseph Hawley and Captain James Octavius Machell.
46 AUGUST 2026 CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
Powered by FlippingBook