The Crown, Buckinghamshire: road house review

By Fiona Duncan 308PM GMT twenty-three March 2010

Previous of Images Next Room no twelve has a flashy wall dating from the 15th century The food is meant to be the thing at The Crown

Chatting with a integrate in the club in this extraordinary place, I begin to hold I contingency be vital in a dream. "Whereabouts in London do you live?" one guy asks me. I discuss it him the name of the still grassed area block where I"ve resided contentedly for most years. "Well, how funny, my sister lives there, at No 6." "No she doesn"t, I live at No 6." "Yes, she does." "No, I do." "Blue door?" "Yes." "Roses in front?" "Yes." "Old yellow Fiat 500 and pinkish Jaguar regularly parked outside?" "Yes. That"s really her house."

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I"m saved from a hitch of sparring about who essentially lives at No 6 by the attainment of my friends Amanda and Ken. "What"s going on?" they ask. "Oh nothing. I competence be vital in a together universe, that"s all. Let"s go in to dinner."

The Crown stands in Amersham"s well-developed High Street, whose brew of design spans five centuries, with shops, houses, churches and pubs all confused together, nonetheless intelligent boutiques and delis have right afar swept in reserve the dozen pubs, 9 butchers and 6 greengrocers that traded here.

Old beams, creaky, disproportionate floors, a warren of corridors and staircases upstairs, and a glorious cobbled yard outward heed the Elizabethan Crown, though the new see emblem by eminent engineer Ilse Crawford gives it, to my mind, a bland, if agreeably ethereal and unfussy, appearance. Rooms, indispensably small, are all the same, with great points and bad. In ours luxurious, really gentle beds but with vitriolic hulk cushions instead of headboards; paperbacks and Roberts radio; worried rocking chair; large showering but with a rubber building that looks as if it competence begin tact bacteria; rootless loo. One room has been spared the Crawford hold the 4 print apartment where Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell famously got it together in Four Weddings and a Funeral. It"s still usually the same.

The food is meant to be the thing here. The glorious prepare and food bard Rosie Sykes is the consultant, that is great and explains the menu"s importance on organic and internal produce. The food that essentially appears on the plates, however, from a preference of usually 3 starters and main courses, is passed ordinary, that is not so good. Breakfast is ordinary. Public bedrooms see modishly appealing, but feel as well wooden and worried you can"t solve down. Staff are rather bungled (looks similar to there was meltdown on New Year"s Eve, according to Tripadvisor). We leave in the morning, the intoxicating beverage carried by the initial blue sky in weeks, but not by the stay in the Crown, that might see intelligent but lacks a heart.

Four miles afar at Great Missenden, a provide is in store. Amanda opens the lively Roald Dahl Museum generally for us (it"s routinely sealed on a Monday) and gives us a guided tour. We lapse to London on a high, unmotivated that the home might spin out to be a fetish of the imagination. Roald Dahl would have approved.

How it rates (out of five)

ROOMS TTT

Try for No 12, with a flashy wall dating from the 15th century

SERVICE TT

Friendly, but inapt

CHARACTER TTT

Rambling coaching motel in a poetic Chilterns High Street

FOOD & DRINK TTT

Acceptable, but less considerable than it"s meant to be

VALUE FOR MONEY TTT

Prices are fair, but some-more regard would help.

16 High Street, Amersham (01494 721541; thecrownamersham.com. Doubles from �119, together with breakfast. Access is probable for guest with disabilities. More reviews by Fiona Duncan at thehotelguru.com