We took advantage of a long weekend in April 2022 to spend a few days in and around Salisbury, a town we’d visited several times over the years, mostly when passing through to go elsewhere, but in which we’d never stayed and properly explored. A quick hunt around for a hotel that suited our needs – basically, it’s just got to have car parking – brought up the Legacy Hotels Rose & Crown, no more than ten minutes’ walk from all the main tourist spots in the Wiltshire town. Easy to get to, nicely-located, and we’d even get a bottle of Prosecco upon arrival! Sold.
Our plan had been to arrive on the Friday afternoon, have a wander into Salisbury, get food and some drinks there, then explore the town like proper tourists on the Saturday, with Sunday reserved for some trips out to nearby sites of interest to us. That was until we checked in and threw out the first day’s plans completely.
Our room was located on the furthest point west of the hotel and had a door that opened straight out onto a grassy area. The room was very large, and, in addition to the welcome bottle of fizz in a bucket, contained not only a kettle for tea and coffee, but also one of those fancy coffee pod machines too. We’d never used one of those before and would make two attempts to try to get something that looked and tasted nice out of it over the weekend with no real success; even a browse online for instructions in use wasn’t too forthcoming and we decided we wouldn’t be buying one of those for the house as a result.
We thought we might take advantage of the grassy area outside our room to drink the Prosecco on the small patio. That was when we discovered that the hotel was right on the waterfront. I hadn’t really realised that the Rose & Crown sat on the banks of the River Avon in Salisbury, and I hadn’t realised that there was a huge area with picnic tables and patio sets and some gorgeous views in an idyllic setting to enjoy. It helped having the weather for it, of course, but this was a wonderful surprise and was the reason that our plan to walk into Salisbury got ditched. We opted instead to sit out in the hotel garden on the banks of the river, watching people paddleboard up and down, drinking first the free fizz, then a few pints from the bar.
You can see from the photos below just how close to Salisbury Cathedral we were, and that would be one of the places we would be visiting the following day.
The bridge over the River Avon that we could see from the hotel would be one that we would cross several times over the next couple of days as it marked the most direct route to Salisbury. Called either Ayleswade or Harnham Bridge, it dates from around the thirteenth century and is a scheduled monument.
Our altered plans for the Friday meant we would be eating at the hotel rather than in the town. We showered, changed, and made our way through the hotel’s sprawling interior to the dining room and bar area. A word about that interior. The Rose & Crown definitely feels like an evolved pub; appearing like a coaching inn from the Middle Ages from one side with bolted-on conservatory area on another, more modern expansions to it all flowing around another section and following the contour of a small rise where the car park is to at points provide two storeys of accommodation, and rooms jutting off corridors here and there. It lends it all a nice, homely feel, and carries with it some age that is both comforting but can in places feel a little dated. We liked it.
As for our dinner: well, as you can see below there was a decent offering, but I think we both agreed the food was no more than satisfactory. Fine for a hotel, of course, and we had no real complaints, with just a minor eye-rolling from the pair of us when one of the courses was served on slate. I know it’s only one letter difference from plate, but it’s an important letter. I guess we’re old fashioned and like our food on porcelain, not slabs of metamorphic rock.
Our view from the conservatory area where food was served provided us with the lovely sight of dusk on the River Avon, and after our food we took a short walk around to a nearby pub just to see what that was like so got to see our hotel from the outside on the way back.
We enjoyed our stay at the Rose & Crown hotel in Salisbury and, not only would we use it again if visiting the area, we would – and have – recommended it to others if staying in the area too. It ticked all the right boxes for us: parking, convenient location, a lot of character, and wonderful views and garden area if the weather is good. Food was okay, drinks were a smidge pricey, but everything within that range of tolerance we have for such matters when taking any vacation in the UK these days.
In the subsequent posts in this Salisbury Weekender travelogue series I’ll cover the places we visited in the town – the cathedral, some museums, and pubs (of course) – and what we explored in the vicinity – a Roman settlement and a country house.