HOMEWOOD
Bubbles drunk with your social bubble, within an actual bubble; could there be a more enticing treat in the run-up to Christmas 2020? Words by Deri Robins
T
hey’re the same as the Copper Club igloos at Tower Bridge,” said our informative host Daisy. “Ah yes,” we replied, nodding knowingly, while stealthily Googling beneath the table. Turns out it’s not Copper at all, but Coppa. Shows how long it’s been since we were up in London. Besides, we were only half-listening. We were as excited as kids on Christmas Eve, distracted by the novelty of dining in our own festive globe, set in the manicured 10-acre grounds of Homewood hotel. Short of arriving at a party with a guitar and a Kumbaya songbook, these pop-ups provide the very best social distancing you can get. Dome-dining was instantly added to my companion’s growing list of lockdown positives, which also includes the curtailment of manhugging and a welcome end to mingling. Overlooked by ancient oaks and beeches, the rain
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coming down at a profound slant, our dome was as snug as an Alpine mountain refuge, and as festive as Christmas Eve with candlelight and twinkly decorations. We began to feel as if we were starring in our very own Last Christmas video, and had the happy realisation that, in fact, we were quite at liberty to play said tune, or indeed any other we fancied, from our phones; nobody else could hear. We gazed from our splendid isolation across the lawns at the diners seated in the hotel’s main restaurant, who gazed back curiously at us. They looked as if they wished they’d thought of booking a globe, too. We were snug as two bugs on our sheepskin rugs; unlike poor Daisy, who was obliged to trek back and forth in a dripping cagoule as she brought out each course. Even this failed to dim her zeal for the domes, which have been her own personal project; if we were Homewood’s owners, Ian and Christa Taylor, we’d give her full rein to develop a few more cracking ideas like this.
