You know Babylonstoren? Like, the Cape-Dutch-farmhouse-cum-boutique-hotel that has people posting pictures of themselves in a cactus garden like they’ve never seen one before?

Well, there might be a similar version of it soon enough, but a little further afield.

However, rather than situated in some remote location in South Africa, businessman and hotelier Koos Bekker set his site on an English manor house in rural Somerset, reports The Telegraph:

The South African magazine magnate has bought 17th-century Hadspen House, close to the small market town of Castle Cary and erstwhile home of the prolific Hobhouse family (including the Liberal politician, Arthur Hobhouse, who was one of the founders of the England and Wales national parks system).

But why do we think that Bekker will do anything remotely similar to Babylonstoren?

Well, Bekker took ownership of the then-working-farm in 2007, and three years later reopened it as a hotel:

Much along the same lines, planning applications submitted to Somerset South District Council detail a number of potential developments at Hadspen House, including a ‘pool barn’, a spa, a restaurant, a garden café and approximately 30 guest rooms in the Grade II-listed main house, which is expected to open in 2019.

Several outbuildings have also been listed for redevelopment, including a granary, a stable block and a cider press.

Further plans involve restoring Hadspen’s 300 acres of parkland, which includes a “walled potager and an Arts and Crafts garden designed by the writer and presenter Penelope Hobhouse”.

This means that, for the first time since the house was put up for sale in 2012, the gardens, along with a new purpose-built garden museum, will be open to the public:

The new park at Hadspen also draws further comparisons with Babylonstoren, which is famous for its eight-acre kitchen garden: to date the only Royal Horticultural Society-partnered garden in Africa.

The Caterer has also reported that day-to-day operations will be run by Andrew Foulkes, the award-winning general manager formerly of the Abbey Hotel in Bath.

And there you have it.

I guess that means Babylonstoren is going global.

[source:thetelegraph]