By royal command

A new hotel from the former COO of Beaverbrook is breathing new life into one of King Henry VIII’s old guest houses at Hampton Court

- Rebecca Younger

When I heard Hector Ross was restoring an old hotel just up river from Hampton Court Palace, my ears pricked. Hector was the former chief operating officer of Longshot, the company responsible for the transformation of Leatherhead’s Cherkely Court into Beaverbrook – now considered one of the UK’s finest country house hotels.

The Mitre is the first hotel from The Signet Collection, a new boutique luxury hotel brand, which promises to deliver meaningful stays in time-honored places with several destination-defining properties throughout the UK.

“We start with a special place. Our hotels have history, stories to tell. Each one is imbued with generations of tales, legacies, myths and legends,” Hector says. “We unearth this history, these stories. We restore them, reimagining them, passing them on for our guests to enjoy, layered with a British sense of humor, top-notch F&B [food and beverage] and memorable experiences.”

When I visited the Grade II listed 36-bed hotel, which was built in 1665 and originally used as ancillary accommodation for guests of King Henry VIII at the palace, it was still a building site but the various dining spaces at the heart of this project were starting to take shape.