Consuming Interest
Family Holidays
By LESLIE ADRIAN A LONDON American who has been here long enough to know what he's talking about said to me the other day that the British seem to think that animals are more important than children. In lots of ways I think he's right. How little is done in this country, for example, to make a family holiday really t orth while. Seaside hotels don't have half the amenities they should have for children, and parents find it almost impossibly difficult to have a family holiday which satisfies both parents and children, separately and together. If you know of any good ones, I'd like to hear about them.
I have found one place that is really trying to solve this prOblem and, in the circumstances. I'm glad that domestic animals are not even admitted. Sinah Warren, a holiday hotel on Hayling Island, Hampshire (Hayling 77272), will be open this year from May 28 to September 24. It used to be the home of a millionaire and has fifty acres of woodland and its own private beach. Accommodation is in the form of newly built chalets all of which face south and all of which have a private bathroom, lavatory and wash basin. Up to four children with parents can sleep in a 'chalet and there is a radio which gives you two stations and direct communica- tion with the reception desk.
For young children there is a large nursery with a staff who will look after them all day and baby- sit at night; a paddling pool and a sandpit. Cots, high chairs, nappy service, drying rooms and laundry are provided. Older children get free tuition in swimming and sailing. Outings by bus are arranged to take children .to other. parts of the island and the children's last meal of the day is timed to finish so that adults put them to bed before the sensible dinner hour of 8.30.
For parents and older children there is a large heated swimming pool, hard tennis courts, water ski-ing, fishing, sailing, archery, riding and a small-bore rifle range. Hayling Golf Club is next door and members of recognised golf clubs can use it without charge. There is a dinner- dance every night and an occasional cabaret. Your newspaper is delivered free to your chalet every morning.
If the word 'chalet' makes you think of a holiday camp, forget it. All the amenities are there but nobody is 'organised.' The food is in the hands of a Polish chef and his wife who be- tween them run the main dining-room and a grill- room. The dining-room provides good break- fasts, three-course lunches and four-course dinners. The grill-room is for late diners or for people who wish to pay extra. The menu here is excellent and there is a wine list ranging from Spanish Burgundy en carafe (Is. 6d. a glass) to a 1935 port at 46s. a bottle. The mark-up on all wines is a good deal smaller than far too many restaurants feel entitled to charge.
Charges are from 12 gns. to 17 gns. a week depending on whether you choose to go early, late or in mid-season. Children are charged 5 gns. to 8 gns. from ages four to eleven and 4 gns. to 5 gns. under four years. Sinah Warren is seventy- one miles south of London and if you want to try it out before committing yourself you can . drop in for a drink or a meal. •
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A correspondent has sent me a letter he has received from Mann Crossman and Paulin Ltd.; he feels it deserves some publicity. So do I.
He found recently that all three pubs where he regards himself as a regular (two in Southend- on-Sea, one in London) had ceased to stock Carlsberg, Tuborg, Pilsner, or Heineken lagers, and instead were offering only a `Pilsner type' lager called Skol, and Carling's 'Black Label.'
Irritated, he wrote to the brewery—saying, among other things On the face of it, this development is an unpleasant monopolistic practice. An analogy would be, it I were to go into a tobacconist's, ask for an ounce of my customary pipe tobacco brand X, and be informed that in future only brand (which I very much dislike) would be supplied. The obvious answer from my side would be that I would go elseWhere. But 'else- where' in this instance applies to all the thousands of Mann and Watney houses. More- over, it would be quite unfair to the licensees with whom very friendly relations have been established over many years, and unfair to the customer who has learned to regard the public house as a social rendezvous.
The company's reply (the signature is illegible, so it is not clear who was writing on its behalf) is a minor classic :
We are in receipt of your letter of 12th May and regret that you do not like the two lagers which we have arranged for our houses to stock.
This arrangement is part of a very wide arrangement under which the number of beers stocked in licensed houses, both ours and other people's, has been increased and it has generally been acceptable to the public.
Shades of Animal Farm! I am sorry now that Charles Clore did not succeed in his take-over bid for Watneys: these brewing empires sorely need a shake-up.
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