Review: Estelle Manor

Why book?

To have a good time. The latest private-members country club to have opened in Oxfordshire, wrapped in a Jacobethan hall with parkland, is a humdinger with an instant cachet. Everything is celebratory of the good life, with a no-expenses-spared mélange of textured interiors, elaborate food and clubbable service. It’s hard to find a country-club set-up that matches it in terms of sheer ambition and breadth of vision – and competition is stiff on the cusp of the Cotswolds. A fun atmosphere, and a certain indulgent permissiveness, pervades.

Set the scene 
The moment the wheels of your car swivel onto the manicured gravel of this 60-acre estate ensconced in 3,000 acres of parkland, and you’re ushered down the impeccable tree-lined avenue towards the Jacobean Revival manor house, the magic starts. Inside the Jane Eyre-esque pile, the panelled shell of ornate ceilings and giant windows has been transformed. Roman and Williams, Olivia Weström and Ennismore Design Studio have created opulent interiors to plunge into. A riot of paintings and sculptures from the likes of Billy Childish and Erin Lawlor, antiques sourced from the Mediterranean to Morocco, and glittering Wilkinson’s of London candelabra, bring more layered beauty.

Three sitting rooms are complemented by a further three members’ social spaces for carousing in, concealed behind a subtle screen (here, DJs including Goldierocks make appearances, and mobile snaps are banned; staff politely place a sticker over mobile camera lenses). The South Terrace, with bucolic and far-reaching views, is already the locus of socialising spilling down to the 25-meter pool. A vermillion poolside bar awaits its summer shipment; House Gospel Choir are scheduled to sing there soon. Legions of personal, merry staff members move around the place with an practiced efficiency that belies the newness of their jobs.

A Clubhouse functions as a one-stop shop for work-life needs, folding in a George Northwood salon (in the works), a roomy work space with power-call booths, a hole-in-the-wall cafe, a talks space, a kid’s club (with two hours of free childcare for 3-8 year-olds promised), a small shop, an airy gym stocked with high-tech cardio, strength and training equipment and AI-controlled Technogym gear, and a Pilates studio.

Still under construction are a series of woodland houses and cottages, two Padel courts and an ambitious Roman-style bath house. To be unveiled at the end of summer, Eynsham Baths will unfold over 3,000 square metres of sculpted columns and carved marble, with a tepidarium, ten treatment rooms, thermal cabins, another outdoor pool and an alfresco bar (a bacchanalian woodland option for late-night carousing).

The backstory

Locals know the building as Eynsham Hall. It’s been a hunting pad, a retreat for pregnant evacuees and a police training centre by turns, but the acquisition by hospitality giant Ennismore heralded a glamorous new dawn. Ennismore’s CEO-wunderkind Sharan Pasricha, by the age of 42, had cut his teeth on transforming The Hoxton Shoreditch into a cult destination for East London, made lofty Gleneagles fashionable again, and has now taken over a tranche of Accor brands including Mama Shelter, 25 Hours and SLS. Pasricha opened the Mayfair private member’s club Maison Estelle in 2021. If Maison Estelle is known for its wild interiors, popularity with the global entrepreneurial elite and disregard for dress code, the Manor follows suit with this beautiful and boisterous second chapter. Pasricha’s wife Eiesha Pasricha is the de facto artistic director of the brand, also personally curating the retail at Gleneagles and the shop at Estelle Manor.

The rooms

There are 108 rooms and suites across the house and the new Stables and Walled Garden buildings, with 34 in the manor house. Rooms feel streamlined despite the grown-up splendor of upholstered silk furniture, richly patterned rugs and antiques; and in the pipeline are some Scandinavian-styled woodland cottages and three larger homes. Mini bars burst with silk eye covers, collagen masks, melatonin sprays and ear plugs, suggesting the bacchanalia Estelle encourages.

The food and drink

Under the stewardship of Richard Bias, eating is an event. Breakfasts and informal suppers unfold in the Brasserie, which has an orangery, and a terrace for sunny mornings. The evening menu includes a raw section of caviar, crabs, yellow tail, oysters, and of particular note are the juicy steaks served with the marrow. Brunches segue to drunches on the terrace, whilst the Billiards Room is best for razzle dazzle – emerald-green carpets, serpent-shaped banquettes, malachite-topped tables and glittery-gold wall claddings are the backdrop for an excellent Chinese menu centred on dim sum, bao and roasted meats by ex Hakkasan Ah Tat Ip. Friendly Ronald Wang, who hailed from Noble Palace and A Wong, is front of house. An interesting wine list includes English sparkling wines like Hundred Hills, and there are 5,000 more bottles in the cellar. A Japanese restaurant by ex Nobu alumnus Sergej Leonenko is in the pipeline as is a grill restaurant set in the kitchen garden’s glasshouse.

The service 
Legions of upbeat staff members move with a practised efficiency that belies their newness. Special props to the jolly axe-throwing head of adventure, Nye Rees; personable Brasserie maitre d’, Javier Padron; and trainer Peter Sullivan, who explained the finer points of fasting for women whilst crucifying my glutes.

The neighborhood 
Estelle Manor’s 60-acre estate is wrapped in 3,000 acres of parkland and there’s no view of any settlement from the house. It feels like a world of its own, but is a short drive from pretty Woodstock and its pubs; Oxford; retail temple Bicester Village; and restaurant and design smorgasbord RH England at the old Aynhoe Park.

Who comes here? 
A cross section of generationally diverse, sociable types, for now mostly Maison Estelle émigrés. Some en famille, and some are childless. All are beaver-keen to have first chomp of this slice of Estelle-in-the-country.

Eco effort

Estelle’s credentials appear to be in the minutiae. All estate vehicles are electric with the exception of the Land Rovers. All used cooking oil is repurposed by Oxford Oils for biofuel. The dried floristry – a deliberate choice over fresh-cut flowers – comes from a ten-mile radius. Commune bathroom products are refillable and made in Britain with natural oils. Naturalmat mattresses are handmade in Devon from organic materials in a solar-powered workshop, and can be recycled after use. Royal Jersey handles dry cleaning; they have reduced water usage by 85 percent and recycle 80 percent of heated water.

Accessibility for those with mobility issues

There is disabled access, and accessible room options within the Manor House, Walled Garden and Woodland Cottages.