Observatory House: huge historic house and garden | House in Bedford

Period Georgian home which can accommodate 20+ guests (max so far, 32!): roaring fires, kitchen range, large living rooms, third-acre garden, lawn tennis, croquet, swimming pool, piano, cinema room. Easy walk to a huge variety of restaurants, pubs, park, shops; five minute walk to town centre, beautiful embankment and river walks beyond; five mins walk to bus station; ten to railway station with easy access to London. 45 min drive to Cambridge, 20 to Milton Keynes shopping centre. The space Please note that this is our family home, not an hotel: see Guest Interaction for more information. (You also might want to try our handy questionnaire in the Other Things to Note section, to see whether we are a match for each other.) Built in 1825, our quintessential blue-plaque Georgian English town house once housed the largest observatory in England. With its own swimming pool, croquet-and-tennis lawn and home cinema (with free Netflix) it is large enough for several families to stay in together. We have numerous bedrooms and a third of an acre garden as if we were miles into peaceful countryside, and yet it is extremely convenient for the town centre (five minutes' walk) and river, for London (37 minutes by train) and Cambridge (45 by car or just over an hour by very convenient and comfortable bus). Those interested in astronomy will be intrigued to learn that the house was built and first lived in by Admiral Willaim Smythe, after whom a sea on the moon is named, who built the observatory after which the house is named, now moved to the nearby Bedford School. It is a house full of history and we keep it as true to its original as is compatible with the comforts of modern living. Sometimes (depending on demand and season) it is possible for us to give you a discount on the listed rate, so feel free to ask. (But before you book, please! Discounts are not available retrospectively.) Guest access With the run of our house and garden, in the summer you will have the use of our pool, tennis court and croquet, in the winter open fires and a lovely warm range in the kitchen; also our conservatory, dining and drawing rooms, home cinema, et cetera. You will also have access to some of the best of the South of England... though many of our guests say they love our house and garden so much and find so much to do on our own premises that they can hardly bear to go out! The garden has been planted (in my dear mother's memory) as much as possible with plants, flowers, trees and fruit which were available in 1825, to be in keeping with the house itself. In the summer of 2016 we finished the planting and design of the rose garden and year-round rose, clematis and vine walkway and open pergola we had been planning for several years. This came into bloom for the first time the next summer and we were told by rose-fanatics that it looked better than Kew: in June it can be quite breathtaking. Our next project is to fill the flower beds with naturalised bulbs for the spring. You can spot our house easily from the street by the glorious seasonal window-boxes, and we have now opened up the Georgian balconettes which had fallen into disuse. We are constantly working to improve our home, restoring it to its original design whilst also making it practical for the current century. Two winters ago we opened up the original Georgian larder (although we mostly keep this for our own food during your stay). A list of all the rooms available can be sent to you on request, as can the full room list. We strongly advise reading both of these to prepare you for your visit. Other things to note (NB. Before booking, you might want to try the guest questionnaire at the end of this section to see whether our venue is suitable for you.) We can accommodate more than 16: how much (and at what cost) depends partly on how you are happy to share the rooms; as well as other factors such as type of party and guest. Generally speaking, after the first 16 guests, there is a surcharge of £50 per person per night. (This is because it is a lot more disruptive for us to use downstairs rooms as bedrooms. Also, wear and tear increase exponentially: our experience is that a larger party carries a far greater risk of damage and disturbance.) Optional extras: we can provide meals for you, booked in advance. These can include produce from our own garden (depending on what is available): quails', hens' and duck eggs from the already mentioned in residence; honey from our bees; while our own fruit (and nuts) can include (depending on the season) figs, apricots, peaches, nectarines, pears, apples, kiwis, almonds and cob nuts. Menus include home-cured gravadlax (with our own herbs; our son-in-law is Norwegian and a trained chef), homemade bread, a barbecued spit-roast of the meat of your choice (sometimes available, hand-reared from our local rare-breed farm) and local artisan goat, ewe and cow cheeses (from the same farm). The house and garden are also available for wedding receptions and parties. We hosted our first wedding in May 2016 and the couple has very kindly given permission for us to use their photographs, so look out for these on the separate wedding-venue listing. Please also note, if you are planning a wedding or similar event, our professional musician son plays in a superb originals band – look up Albany Down – and also has access to musicians of all kinds, including string quartets and close harmony groups. And our daughter is a harpist... This is our family home, so please don't expect it to be an hotel! It is full of books, musical instruments, beautiful antiques and many precious things so we ask you to care for it as if it were yours. And however hard we try before your arrival, it is unlikely to be immaculate: we are a large and happy family with a number of pets and the house is lived in. Nevertheless we will do everything we can to make your stay as luxurious and comfortable as we can. If you are a musician, you are welcome to use our piano (with great care please: it was given to my grandmother when she was a piano student in 1910). If by any fluke one of your number is a harpist, you are welcome to play our harps (but please not if you don't know how to use them). We have also just been given a muselar. (A what?) So you can expect: a fabulous, huge home with lots of character; masses to do indoors and out, in the house and wider neighbourhood; pure linen sheets and individual handmade soaps in the bedrooms; lots of indoor and outdoor games; a library of films; thousands of books to read; and a very warm welcome indeed. You should not expect: an all-weather tennis court suitable for an international tournament; the pool to be artificially heated; no arguments in your family over the rules of croquet; not a speck of dust anywhere. This is a two-hundred-year-old house not a modern minimalist box, and even if we sweep every inch of it before you arrive, some enterprising spider will have found a private nook somewhere to spin a little web unseen... Regrettably, it is not always possible to reserve the house for you if you are not able to confirm straight away. This is not at all because I am not willing to trust you, but because I receive several requests every day and I simply can't remember them all if they are not definitely booked in. Tip for those organising a group houseparty: the happiest and most relaxed organisers are those who take all the money from members of the group upfront, at the time of booking the property, long before the arrival date. It is axiomatic that someone may have to drop out at the last minute, sometimes for the best of reasons: if they have already paid, the financial headache is theirs, not yours! (We used to offer a candlelit-downstairs option for a surcharge of £100, supplying every sconce in the house including four downstairs chandeliers, numerous candelabras and an entirely candlelit bathroom. The effect, particularly in winter, of almost the entire ground floor being lit by candles and firelight is quite magical: guests sometimes realise after half an evening that there is no electric light, and comment on how wonderfully different the atmosphere is. However, the toll taken on the local fire officer's nerves as well as ours has rendered this not a very popular option from our point of view. Feel free to enquire, however, if you desperately want to try it.)

Observatory House: huge historic house and garden is located in Bedford. Observatory House: huge historic house and garden provides accommodation, featuring Kitchen, Parking, Pet Friendly, among other amenities. This House features Kitchen, Parking, Pet Friendly, to make your stay a comfortable one.

Observatory House: huge historic house and garden has 9 Bedrooms , 5 Bathrooms, and max occupancy of 20 people. The minimum rental for this property is 2 nights, but this can change depending on the season you plan on staying. Previous guests have given good rated it, and VRBO labeled it a top-rated House because of the excellent services rendered by the owner or manager of this House, and has consistently provided great experiences for their guests. Most families or guests that use it recommend it to their friends and some of them are repeat guests. House has a friendly neighborhood, and the Bedford has interesting places to visit. If you want to learn more about the House in Bedford, such as places to visit and things to do nearby, you can check below to learn more.