In common with most other hotels of this sort, what had been the stable yard out the back had been colonised by a range of other buildings, including that including our bedroom (left hand window, above the shed. Viewed from public car park just to the east of the hotel. Note shadows heading north). Advertised sea view was very much present and correct with viewing through a picture window which must have been of the order of 8 feet square. Fine view of Golden Cap and away down to Portland. Sun rose just clear of the tip of Portland Bill in an approximately south easterly direction - and this a few days short of the winter solstice. And we were maybe 75 feet above sea level, which must have pulled sun rise over the sea a few notches to the east. So nowhere near the traditional east. The only thing wrong with the room, again in common with many other hotels, was the difficulty of controlling the temperature which was far too high for a good part of our stay. Problem resolved by turning off the radiators and opening a window - although it still took some hours to cool down. Heat must have been oozing in from neighbouring rooms.
Hotel management was clearly into games, so we had a full sized snooker table and a decent looking ping-pong table, both unused as far as we could see. But we also had various nests of jigsaws. Quite decent jigsaws set out on tables which were a bit small for the purpose but which were nevertheless there. With the result that twoparticularly intrepid ladies seemed to be working away at one of them every time we passed. They were rather concerned that someone should continue the good work after their departure, so we were pleased to find that someone did. A someone who explained to me that one really needed 1,000 piece jigsaws (which is what these were) rather than the 500 piece that I favour, so that you can really get lost in the thing. An interesting point of view.
Hotel management seemed to be rather proud of its food and they did indeed have a rather handsome dining room in one of the colonial buildings, perhaps 30 or 40 years old. But breakfast not so hot. There were midget croissants which were OK but a bit insubstantial (and in which I seemed to be the only person indulging). There was toast on request. But there were no rolls and no proper bread - so I was reduced to converting my breakfast to sandwiches using toast which is not very satisfactory at all. Furthermore, the breakfast was adequate rather than good. Bacon not great, sausages palid, black pudding cold and the eggs fried in oil or some such. Not proper fried eggs at all - but then, to be fair, very few hotels these days manage to fry their eggs in lard. BH much happier than me having opted for smoked haddock with a poached egg perched on top. I would not have been very happy with either the cut or the size of the haddock portion. All in all, rather hard to please in this department.
Otter red in the bar was very good and, after five months abstinence, I managed two halves and one pint over the two days.
All in all, not a bad place at all. I would certainly stay there again.
PS: pluses not mentioned above include car park and very central Lyme Regis location.
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