Slow Life » Newby Bridge

The Cuckoo Brow Inn

jonathandenby — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:38:41 +0000

The world’s best commute (see http://www.slow-life.co.uk/2010/12/21/the-slow-life-journey-to-work/) has just got a whole lot better now that the Sawrey Hotel has been magically transformed into the Cuckoo Brow Inn. I can take precious little credit for the transformation, but that hasn’t stopped me from lapping up the extravagantly lavish praise which I’ve received from just about everyone in the village of Far Sawrey. The person who deserves the credit is my PA, Sally, who, together with her husband Dan, has been fully responsible for the project, including all the design work. The work started in November last year, since when the 2 Star and rather sad old Sawrey Hotel has been completely gutted and transformed into a 4 star Inn with 14 stylish bedrooms. The work was interrupted for a little while four months ago while Sally gave birth to her baby Florence (http://www.slow-life.co.uk/2011/05/19/the-happiest-smile/), but apart from that she has been indefatigable, and I’m very proud of what she has achieved.

Mackies of Lancaster- 10 Years On

jonathandenby — Thu, 26 May 2011 08:27:01 +0000

“For me Mackies is a Lovemark”
Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide, Saatchi and Saatchi

James Mackie leads a double life. The keyboard player (I should say Hammond player) with the Heroes of She made his name with Madness and The Selector. But when he’s not writing songs or playing at the O2 he runs the best interior design business in north Lancashire. He’s not just one of those designers who points to the “in” colour in the Farrow and Ball chart, he gets down and dirty doing the work himself, with a particular talent for trompe l’oeil. He’s done some brilliant work for me, the latest of which is the interior of the Rotunda at Newby Bridge- about which more in a day or so.

Today is the tenth anniversary of James’ firm, Mackies of Lancaster. James is hosting a bash at his elegant Georgian premises in Dalton Square, Lancaster. It’s a testament to how James is regarded by his clients that the boss of Saatchi and Saatchi, Kevin Roberts, has flown in from New Zealand to say a few words on James’ behalf. James is loved by us all, and I was particularly touched by Kevin’s paean of praise, which I rather wonkily captured on my iPhone.

The Deathly Trail of the Tornados

jonathandenby — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 08:29:26 +0000

I’m not sure if they’ve actually killed anyone but they do give you the fright of your life. There you are, enjoying the wilderness with your dog high on the fells when suddenly, out of nowhere, comes this almighty WHOOSH as a Tornado fighter jet flies a few feet above your head at 600 mph. It’s an experience you never forget. If you live here, near Lake Windermere, it’s an experience which happens all too often because this is their favourite training ground.

What I hadn’t appreciated until today is that the route of these fighters is etched into the landscape. This photo was taken at the Newby Bridge Hotel and shows the densely wooded hillside at Finsthwaite where the trees have newly come into leaf. They are looking most impressive in their verdant greenery- except that there appears to be a grey line running through it. The grey is a line of dead trees which lie directly under the flightpath of the Tornados. The fighters may not yet have killed any innocent walkers, but they are certainly fatal to any vegetation in their path.

A Black Swan on Lake Windermere

jonathandenby — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:00:38 +0000

A Black Swan is the term which economists use to describe a unexpected and devastating event which scuppers all your plans. The Lake District had its own Black Swan in November when the unprecedented rainfall caused unprecedented floods which frightened away all our tourist trade. This was followed by a family of Black Cygnets when 5 successive snowfalls over as many weeks made certain that the tourists wouldn’t or couldn’t come flooding back.
Some lateral thinking was needed if our businesses were to be saved. We hit upon the idea of ‘Super Sundays’ where hotels would give away their rooms for next to nothing on the first four Sundays of the year. We put the idea to our colleagues and they loved it. So did the public. As soon as ‘Super Sundays’ went public more than 1000 room nights were sold. The idea also caught the imagination of the local TV and the national press. This video is of me being interviewed about Super Sundays for the ITV news and the item was shown on the 6 o’clock news and again at 10.30.

BBC TV at the Newby Bridge Hotel

jonathandenby — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:43:24 +0000

The BBC chose a packed bar at The Newby Bridge Hotel today to film a piece for the early evening news. The story was about the safe haven which the staff at The Newby Bridge Hotel had given to the staff from nearby hotels which had been closed by the floods. The piece went out live and I got the chance to say on camera how proud I was of my staff in rallying round. The bar looked warm and welcoming, with an open log fire in awful contrast to the Swan Hotel lying cold and empty opposite us.

Lakes Hospitality Association Interiors Show

jonathandenby — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:42:34 +0000

When the water level on Lake Windermere rose by 9ft on Friday, closing the roads to Ambleside, there seemed to be little prospect of opening the Interiors Show at the Low Wood Hotel on the shores of the Lake as planned on the Monday morning. Cancellation would have been disastrous for Lakes Hospitality as the Show is one of the two big money events of the year. But nothing fazes Gail, the Show’s indefatigable organisor and when the roads re-opened over the weekend she declared “Business as usual”. All the exhibitors made it, but we had the bizarre experience of hearing the event being trailed on the local radio news only for the traffic bulletin which followed the news advising people not to travel to the Lakes because of the weather.
I was pleased to see Ian Steel at the J. Atkinson and Son stand, not least because he was generously supplying everyone with free cups of his excellent Java and Elephant coffees. Ian was in jubilant spirits, holding aloft a copy of the Independent, in which his coffee shop (founded as the Grasshopper Tea Warehouse in 1837) had just been named as one of the best 50 food shops in the country. Here’s the link- http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/food-drink/the-50-best-food-shops-1823609.html?action=Popup&ino=39. I got chatting to Ian about my “Do One Thing” campaign and he told me about his brilliant “one fell scoop” idea. The way it works is that instead of supplying coffee to his commercial customers in individual sachets, he supplies it in bulk together with a scoop which measures out the quantity which would have been in the sachet. This saves him a fortune in the time saved by not having to fill the sachets and the cost of the sachets themselves. All his customers love it and he has the added satisfaction of saving the world into the bargain. Very Slow Life.

Flip Video

jonathandenby — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:19:35 +0000

“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify. Simplify” Thoreau
The essence of the Slow Life is simplicity. Some people have decided that to pursue the Slow Life they have to eschew technology. They crave the simple life before progress made it complicated. For my part I love progress, I love technology but I love it best when it’s simple. Most innovative products can’t resist the temptation to over-complicate and to add every possible feature, most of which the average customer doesn’t want or need.
The Flip video is the epitome of good simple design. It’s a small video camera, not much bigger than a mobile phone, which only has two functions- Record and Play Back. There’s a built in USB port which plugs directly into the computer which automatically downloads the videos, without the need for software. The Flip is so good I’ve bought five of them- one for me, one for each of the hotels and on for the Heroes of She. For the hotels the Flip is a simple and very effective marketing tool. When a guest is saying how much they’ve enjoyed their stay the receptionist can record them without any fuss and then post the video on the website. Seeing people actually speaking spontaneously and sincerely is much more effective than just reading words in cold print. I think we are the first hotel to be doing this but the idea is so simple and effective that I’m sure it will soon be the norm. All power to the Flip- the epitome of Slow Life technology.

Do One Thing

jonathandenby — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:24:59 +0000

I’ve signed up all the hotels to the Guardian’s 10:10 campaign – to cut energy consumption by 10% in 2010. Some members of staff are already totally enthusiastic about all things green, but we needed to get everyone involved and to get them thinking about their responsibilities and about what they could do on a personal level. The, ‘do one thing’ campaign asks every member of staff to think about their routine and to come up with an idea to help the environment. The idea is that if we all ‘do one thing’ then collectively we can make a difference. With a bribe of a box of fair trade chocolates for the best idea the campaign has been a great success. Everyone has been talking about what they can do and here is a video with some of their ideas.