Reading Rooms

Thursday, July 06, 2006

JACK'S NOT A DULL BOY: The Forbury's luxuries make work feel a lot like fun

THE FORBURY HOTEL

London may be Britain's control center, but Reading, 60 km west of the capital, is its tech support. Some of the world's biggest IT and communications firms — including Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Oracle and Vodafone — have set up shop in or around the city. So sooner or later, anybody who's anybody in the world of

business or technology will find themselves paying a visit to Reading. And now they can lodge at the Forbury, a new luxury hotel aimed at the BlackBerry set.

Owner Toby Hunter spent $10 million transforming the Edwardian county hall into a place where work meets play. The Forbury has several large meeting rooms, a small cinema for presentations and wi-fi access throughout. It's as grand as a country manor — a chandelier made of 84,000 glass beads shimmers in the stairwell — but with only 24 bedrooms, it's cozy, too. "I thought of the things you enjoy when you stay with friends," says Hunter, "whether it's the little touches they put in your room, a great meal or a cold drink on the terrace."

Guest rooms are tastefully opulent: plush pink, red and orange fabrics, modern dark-oak furniture, Egyptian cotton sheets and bespoke artwork. But the details feel like home: a chess set on the table, candles by the bathtub, books you might actually read and a welcome bag with a little rubber duck inside. If you can pull yourself away from the Bang & Olufsen entertainment center, the hotel's swanky Cerise restaurant serves a modern European menu using local ingredients, and the bartender makes a mean mojito. It's been said one should never mix business with pleasure. Whoever said that was wrong. tel: (44-118) 958 1234; theforburyhotel.co.uk