This is Broome Park Country Hotel, where we arrived on Sunday night after a several-hour journey from Southampton.
We found it difficult dragging our four bags—thank goodness for modern wheeled luggage!—along bumpy sidewalks and into train stations and onto buses. It didn’t help that at Southampton train station they changed the platform for the train to Waterloo just as the train was coming and everyone had to rush up the stairs and then back down again. There was no possibility of using the lifts, we were afraid we would miss the train. And then we discovered that modern trains don’t have areas to put large pieces of luggage anymore. So we just stuck them in the aisle and hoped there would be no complaints (there weren’t.) I fell asleep for part of the train journey so arrived in Waterloo slightly disoriented. But we found the train to Canterbury West with help from a kind ticket taker and arrived at Canterbury an hour and a half later.
Canterbury was very busy on a Sunday afternoon, people milling on St. George’s Street. We found a pub, the Lucky Lady, that was large enough for us to put our bags aside while we ate an, actually quite good, pub lunch. It was surprising that the food was so good as the pub was a bit shabby. That was our first lesson in not judging appearances that day....
When we first arrived at the hotel and found our room was in the attic (see the photo above, our windows are the two to the right of the entryway, under the diamond windows) AND that there was no lift, we felt disappointed. The lobby also looked rather tired and worn. We hadn’t slept well on Saturday night, anticipating the Queen Mary’s arrival at Southampton, so all in all, we weren’t in good humor. At first the suite looked pretty worn too. But after two nights we have discovered that the bed is very comfortable, the room is quiet, the windows look out on a wonderful view of the golf course, the staff at the desk are so very helpful and friendly, and it is great to have a sitting room as well as a bedroom with a comfy couch and TV for the evenings when we are so tired after exploring Canterbury. So I am going to give the country hotel a good review in TripAdvisor. It may not be luxurious or modern but it is a lovely haven.
For awhile, periods between 1914-1916, the house was owned by Earl Kitchener, a controversial Victorian-Edwardian commander. The so-called "hero" of the war in Sudan and Khartoum during 1896-1898 who was also accused of massacring defeated Arabs, a commander in the Second Anglo Boer War where he enthusiastically supported the establishment of concentration camps for Boer families and during which he was involved in the court-martial of Breaker Morant which many Australians believe was a travesty. As someone who studied History and continues to be interested in it, I think Kitchener was the consummate soldier and Victorian imperialist. He did what he felt was best for the Empire. His death on a torpedoed ship in Scapa Flow in 1916, during World War 1, was considered a huge tragedy. And his hoped-for retirement home, Broom Park, reflects his Victorian/Edwardian tastes and his various campaigns.
For awhile, periods between 1914-1916, the house was owned by Earl Kitchener, a controversial Victorian-Edwardian commander. The so-called "hero" of the war in Sudan and Khartoum during 1896-1898 who was also accused of massacring defeated Arabs, a commander in the Second Anglo Boer War where he enthusiastically supported the establishment of concentration camps for Boer families and during which he was involved in the court-martial of Breaker Morant which many Australians believe was a travesty. As someone who studied History and continues to be interested in it, I think Kitchener was the consummate soldier and Victorian imperialist. He did what he felt was best for the Empire. His death on a torpedoed ship in Scapa Flow in 1916, during World War 1, was considered a huge tragedy. And his hoped-for retirement home, Broom Park, reflects his Victorian/Edwardian tastes and his various campaigns.
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