Somerset. Long known for farming, hippy sub-cultures and festival, Glastonbury has started a transformation into a stylish retreat where visitors drink quality wine, eat well and see international art. Glass checks into At The Chapel and visits Hauser & Wirth Somerset to see who’s behind this change, and why.
Bruton is a small town with a typical country town mixture of antique shops and cobbled streets, and in many ways on first arrival this barren high street seems somehow insignificant as a destination. On further inspection, we found most of the locals congregated in small groups in our destination, the restaurant of At The Chapel, a beautifully restored chapel owned by our host, Catherine Butler. The change from deserted street to thriving restaurant is remarkable, showing how popular this restaurant, wine store, bakery and hotel all under former 19th century place of worship really is.
After restoring the chapel as her home, the lack of good local wine and bread motivated Catherine into opening At The Chapel as a bakery come restaurant. That was five years ago. Now a wine store is open enticing passing visitors and locals along with eight covetable rooms persuading you to stay longer. Our room in the basement is everything you would expect once you walk through the restored modern entrance; bare wood furniture and dark floorboards give a distinctly Scandinavian feel and the generous bathroom is luxuriously clad in grey marble. This is paired down modernism at its best.
Bedroom 8 in At The Chapel
It’s Sunday evening by the time we’re seated in the restaurant and according to our waitress this is quiet, they’re winding down after a long Sunday lunch service, but the jovial atmosphere from guests – sitting where the main congregation would have sat in the chapel – is infectious. We happily devoured three courses of English comfort food, cooked and seasoned to perfection, assaulting my recollections of a lunch at the Rochelle Canteen earlier in the week – the scallops were far bigger and the garlic more flavourful. Even better were plates of crab with chilli and papa della, completed with whole charred mackerel with a horseradish slaw that I asked for seconds and almost thirds of.
Talking to Catherine the next day, her ambitions for the former chapel from the beginning were clear, to synthesise modern needs; art, food and friends. Her enthusiasm is contagious. Introducing art to her white chapel began by hanging her own Richard Allen prints and with almost divine intervention Iwan & Manuela Wirth (owners of Hauser & Wirth galleries) lived locally and generously agreed to lend contemporary art to the chapel. It now has a constant rotation of art that is curated and changed every few months – Martin Creed’s A Tale of Two Dogs casually towered over the restaurant during our stay, whilst Michael Raedecker’s intricate illustrations hung in our room.
The bathroom in At The Chapel
The main atrium of the chapel couldn’t suit its purpose any better than it does now; two open plan stories of blank canvas are waiting for art, framed with bare wooden furniture handmade by Ahmed Sidki (Catherine’s partner) and reclaimed moss green chairs (found by Catherine from the now closed Mirrabelle restaurant in London). It’s hard not to label this find trendy because stark minimalist luxury is, well, very trendy. Separating At The Chapel from a mere fleeting trend though are the small honest details that meet (and exceed) our basic needs without pretension, everything here seems an organic projection of what Catherine herself likes, and it works very, very well.
The bakery in At The Chapel
A short drive down the road sits Hauser & Wirth Somerset which opened their re-purposed barns to the public last summer, complete with the Roth Bar & Grill that combines gastronomy and contemporary art – visitors eat amongst over 40 pieces of art from Iwan and Manuela Wirth’s private collection; work from Henry Moore, Jason Rhoades and Mira Schendel are here to name a few. International art has landed in the sleepy countryside and is attracting visitors in droves – 45,000 visited in the first three months after opening.
Attracting city and town dwellers could be attributed to the proximity of the firmly established Babington House, or more probably because there’s now good reason to visit and better excuses to stay. Back in the 19th century, water wells signified the centre of the community so there’s no surprise to find one in the basement of At The Chapel. With Catherine’s love of good food, art and socialising this chapel is back in its rightful place in the centre of the community. Coupled with the Wirth’s heavyweight influence in the art world, Bruton has a place firmly back on the map and things look likely to stay this way.
by Stephanie Clair
Rooms available in At The Chapel from £100, find more information here.
Exhibitions from Pipilotti Rist, Richard Tuttle and John Chamberlain are currently open until February 22, 2015 at Hauser & Wirth Somerset.