Feature: The Star, Alfriston
Mother-and-daughter Olga and Alex Polizzi take on their first project as equal partners, overcoming countless challenges to transform a medieval coaching inn into a boutique hotel, writes Emma Love.
The village of Alfriston in East Sussex has a lot going for it: great walking along the River Cuckmere, a handful of interesting independent shops housed in handsome timber-framed Tudor buildings, and the market town of Lewes practically on the doorstep. Yet the former hotel at the centre of the high street was gradually becoming more dilapidated. “As it fell deeper and deeper into disrepair, it became more and more attractive to us,” quips Alex Polizzi, who is best known for presenting long-running television show, The Hotel Inspector, in which she uses her expertise to help struggling hotels try to turn their fortunes around. In Alfriston, the seasoned host has teamed up with her mother Olga Polizzi, Design Director at Rocco Forte Hotels and owner of Hotel Tresanton and Hotel Endsleigh, both in Cornwall, on their first official joint project – Alex has previously overseen the restaurant at Tresanton and ran Endsleigh for several years when it opened.
“Rather foolishly, I thought this was a good moment in my life to venture on a proper project,” Alex continues. “I love The Hotel Inspector but I don’t want to be one of those people who teach because they can’t do.”
The pair initially looked in Devon and Cornwall but could only find enormous money-pit Edwardian piles; then they stumbled across The Star, not far from where Olga has a house. “I’ve always longed for the opportunity to open a hotel in Sussex,” she reveals. “When The Star Inn came on the market, Alex and I were immediately interested. We want it to be an integral part of the community and provide a welcoming environment for all, from walkers to opera goers.”
They bought it at the end of 2019 and began what they thought would be a six-month renovation; several lockdowns and countless unexpected structural alterations later, the hotel finally opened in June this year.
The 30 rooms and suites, which range in size from 20m2 to 35m2, are split between a 1930s building and newer 1960s wing. Everything from plumbing to electrics, flat roofs and oak-framed windows is new, while rooms in the 1960s wing now either come with a small private patio or Juliet balcony. One of the biggest changes the pair made was demolishing an office block that sat in the middle of the site, to add outside space. “Although the hotel worked in winter because of the open fires, it wasn’t so attractive in summer as it didn’t have a garden,” says Alex. “We looked at the plans and realised that by pulling down a modern part of the building and sacrificing a bedroom or two, we could create a Mediterranean-style courtyard at the heart of the hotel. It has bought in so much light and air; it’s made a huge difference.”
While Alex became the on-site troubleshooter and project manager, Olga was naturally in charge of the design. “I always start by thinking about where a hotel is and what the buildings are like. I want people to wake up knowing where they are and to feel a real sense of place,” explains Olga of the thinking behind the rooms. Here, this translates to nature-based blue and green schemes, and floral and animal motifs that appear throughout. Wallpapers are by artist Mark Hearld and Lewis & Wood – “the majority of them are coloured for us or the patterns are blown-up so they’re not too twee,” says Olga – while fabrics are by East Sussex-based Richard Smith. Aside from key pieces such as the Italian linen that tops the Hypnos beds and Carrara marble in the bathrooms, sourcing locally – and employing local craftsmen, from upholsterers to blacksmiths – is a theme that runs throughout. “Partly this came from how difficult it was to get things from abroad with Brexit and Covid, but in a way, it made us focus our minds to buy locally. It’s been a pleasure because there is so much talent in this part of the world,” says Alex, citing antique pieces from Diana Kelly Interiors in Alfriston – she also helped collect all the teapots and candlesticks – and Martin Johnson in Heathfield as examples.
The latter was responsible for finding the three-metre-long, 16th-century oak sideboard for the restaurant, which sits beneath Rob and Nick Carter’s Transforming Portrait Painting, a 20-minute looped film in the style of a Dutch Old Master. Perhaps the most eyecatching feature however is the monochrome Elizabethan design stencilled on the wooden floor by artist Amanda Lawrence. “It took six men to carry the wonderful sideboard in and we made the doorways either side the right size so it fits exactly between them,” says Olga. “Then there’s the beautiful floor, which has made the restaurant really; it’s added something unusual.” Completing the room are Carrara marble tables, inherited chairs recovered in hessian and a triptych of white plaster reliefs on the back wall, which Olga pinched from her bathroom at home.
There’s also a wood-panelled boot room in the ground floor corridor with wellingtons and straw hats that guests can borrow; a private dining room; and a cosy library where the reading selection is curated by Much Ado Books – also on Alfriston’s high street – and includes a section dedicated to the local area, flora and fauna. In the inn, the original beams have been painted a natural brown and the wooden tables are a joint effort by a local carpenter and blacksmith. “I’ve really changed it up in the inn,” continues Olga. “Everything was black and felt very dark, so we lightened it all up. I found one light in my loft and asked Thomas Gontar to reproduce it.”
Gontar, a local blacksmith, also made the wrought iron trellises in the courtyard, where stone walls and planting accompany botanical print cushions and furniture by Vincent Sheppard and Ethimo.
Sustainability was a consideration from the outset so single-use plastics are banned, there are biodegradable cane sugar refillable bottles of Bramley products in the bathrooms and glass bottles by the beds. “I can’t pretend everything’s perfect but I’m really happy with how well it turned out,” Alex concludes. “I said to mum the night before we opened, no-one’s going to realise how much we’ve done because it all looks like it’s been here forever.” And that, of course, is exactly as it should be.
