Boulevard, September/October 2005

When Maria Hernandez took over the Olde England Inn in Esquimalt four and half years ago, there was, she recalls with a wry laugh, “lots of crushed velvet everywhere.”

“We had rooms that were all yellow, with yellow crushed velvet walls and draperies, and a purple velvet room, a red velvet room. It was quite something!” And it was definitely not what she had in mind for the establishment’s new incarnation. The crushed velvet was quickly purged, along with the armour and second-rate antiques, and the momentous task of reshaping the Lampson Street property into the English Inn and Resort got underway.

Inspired by years of travel in Europe, Hernandez’s vision was to create a comfortable luxury hotel with a West Coast flavour. “I love the idea of five-star service with a Tofino edge,” she says. She also wanted to combine the warmth of traditional elements with the freshness of contemporary décor. Where better to start than with an edifice designed by one of B.C.’s foremost turn-of-the-century architects, Samuel Maclure.

The English Inn began life as a residence for Yorkshire-born realtor and developer Thomas Harry Slater and his family. It was built in 1906 and originally known as Rosemeade, a name recently revived with the rechristening of the hotel dining room. Like many of Maclure’s other Tudor Revival-style homes, this one has a stone foundation, a cross-gabled roof (with a high, wide gable running along the front and narrow twinned gables on the ends), a half-timbered façade and a flat-roofed porte-cochère supported by stone pillars. Although subject to some architectural indignities when it was first converted to a hotel in the late 1940s, it remains a magnificent building.

The approach to the house is via a long driveway that curves up from Lampson Street and leads to the front door, which is on the second floor level because of the sloping ground on which the house stands. Entering through the porte-cochère, visitors step directly into a two-storey-high, wood-panelled front hall – another trademark Maclure feature.

At the far end of the hall, a grand staircase ascends to a broad landing, backlit by a bank of stained-glass windows. From there another flight of stairs rises to a gallery that skirts the upper level and leads to the third-floor guest suites. In proportion and style the main staircase is the same as it was in the Slater’s time, but it is now constructed not of wood but of cast concrete. The treads are tiled with smooth dark leather, complementing the braided leather handrails.

Like the stairs, the massive fireplace on the north wall of the hall has been redone in cast concrete, giving it the kind of sleek contemporary look that Hernandez was after. Purists might frown on such liberties, but years of wear and tear on the building meant some amendments were necessary. “We tried to maintain as much as we possibly could of the original architecture,” Hernandez says. “With everything we did we wanted to make sure it was balanced with what Maclure had done.”

Throughout the renovation Hernandez worked closely with designer Jeff Smith, who doubled as project coordinator. She notes that Smith “is very contemporary in his design so this was a great challenge for him to work within such a traditional structure,” a challenge that she thinks he met “extremely well.”

Just inside the main entrance, on the right side of the hall, a wide arched doorway opens to the reception area, where guests register in seated comfort. Directly opposite, through an identical archway, is the lounge. This cosy wood-panelled room is softly lit with recessed lighting and modern Italian sconces. The small fireplace has a russet-toned granite surround that matches the stone used to top the bar.

As owner-operator, Hernandez is at the hotel almost every night and, although she finds it difficult to leave her young children, she loves coming to work. “It’s always wonderful arriving here,” she declares, adding that her own delight in the place makes her want to share it with her guests. “We’re very quick to do kitchen or dining room tours,” she says. And both are well worth touring.

Hernandez admits that the English Inn and Resort is still a work in progress, but with the official opening of the new dining room just before Christmas last December, a substantial part of the project was accomplished, much to her relief.

Leaving its prime rib and Yorkshire pudding days far behind, the Rosemeade now serves up dishes such as six-hour braised veal cheeks, flash-fried local sole and fennel-bulb flan. The dining room is anchored to the past by the original stonework of the outer walls and its large windows with leaded-glass accents. There is also much that is new, including blonde maple floors and lots of coffee-coloured African wenge wood detailed with chrome to catch the light.

As diners arrive and depart they pass through a casually elegant sitting area defined by the eight-foot-long cantilevered fireplace of polished stainless steel that extends along one wall. A deep Italian couch facing the fireplace makes this an ideal location to relax with an after-dinner drink and to contemplate the diverse elements that Hernandez and Smith have brought together here. Most notable are the sculpted walls that flank the fireplace, their dark brown surfaces rippled like a beach at low tide, and the silver-foil-covered ceiling, which glows with the many layers of clear acrylic paint that have been brushed across it. Suspended from the ceiling is a paper-and-foil chandelier created by German lighting designer Ingo Maurer.

The Rosemeade currently accommodates about 60 diners, including up to eight in a private room at the back. This fall another dining option will be added with the installation of a four-person chef’s table in the kitchen. Guests seated in this exclusive location will enjoy a tasting menu with wine pairings plus a front-row view of chef Richard Luttman (formerly of the Las Vegas Four Seasons) and his staff at work.

The renovation of the kitchen began with the removal of so many layers of plywood and linoleum that the room gained eight inches in height. That left plenty of space for the coffered ceiling that is an important part of the “residential feel” Hernandez was seeking. Both the ceiling and the bone china wall tiles used throughout the kitchen are the same luscious shade of Merlot red. Wainscotting of granite and slate runs below the tiles, and the floor is also slate.

Besides touring the kitchen and dining room, no visitor should leave without taking time to stroll through the five-acre property’s rambling gardens. After a major overhaul, each garden area has a distinctive character, from the formality of the newly created sunken garden to the bucolic simplicity of the old orchard.

The team that handled the restoration of the grounds even included a photographer whose role was to make sure there would be pleasing prospects for shooting weddings, an important part of the resort’s business as well as a link to its past. “So many people are touched by this property,” says Hernandez, “whether it was their mum who got married here or their grandmother spent her honeymoon here, or they used to work here. Every night there’s a story about somebody related to the Olde England Inn.”

With its new lease on life, Rosemeade will undoubtedly continue to be a place of memories for this generation and those to come.