As THE PIG celebrates 15 years with nine country houses and a pub, they are also focussing on what lies ahead. Over the last couple of years the team has searched high and low for the right building to become the next chapter in THE PIG story. They’ve explored countless old buildings, each with its own story to tell. So, after months of plotting and finding themselves feeling very much at home in it, Team PIG has finally got the keys to the next chapter in the story.
Many will know that there had been hopes to bring THE PIG to Groombridge Place. Whilst that wasn’t meant to be, the group couldn’t quite shake the feeling that this corner of Kent still had a place in their story. As it happens this area is still in the PIG plan with the next adventure beginning on The Pantiles in Tunbridge Wells. The acquisition of this elegant 18th-century Georgian building on The Pantiles, currently known as The Tunbridge Wells Hotel, is a very exciting new chapter for the nation’s favourite boutique country hotel collection.
For generations The Tunbridge Wells Hotel has sat at the heart of one of Kent’s most characterful addresses. A place where people have gathered, stayed, celebrated and watched the world go by. For centuries, people have come to The Pantiles to eat, drink, stay and spend time together. THE PIG family thought that sounded rather familiar… Old buildings have always been where THE PIG story begins. Most just happen to have been tucked away at the end of country lanes. This one simply sits at the heart of one of Britain’s most beautiful historic promenades. The more time the team has spent there, the more convinced they became that this was somewhere they could call home.
For those who know the group well, the extensive team behind every PIG believes the best places are shaped by the people around them. Knowing who’s growing their tomatoes, buying fish from the boats coming into Kent’s harbours, cooking what the seasons tell them to cook, not the other way around. Filling old buildings with warmth, generous food, comfortable beds and interesting people – believing the best conversations usually happen around a table.
Tunbridge Wells is by no means about replacing what THE PIGs have always done. It’s about building on it. Taking everything they’ve learnt over the last fifteen years and seeing how it feels in a place with a slightly different rhythm. The countryside has always encouraged guests and staff to slow down. The Pantiles has always had a habit of bringing people together. Perhaps that’s what drew THE PIGs there in the first place.
The team’s vision is: it’s somewhere to grab a coffee on your way into work, somewhere for a long lunch that drifts into the afternoon, somewhere to meet friends for a drink and end up staying for dinner, somewhere to prop up the bar a little longer than you intended, and somewhere to stay the night if the evening runs away with you.
There’s still plenty to do before THE PIG welcomes its first guests. Over the coming months they’ll be uncovering the building’s stories, rolling up their sleeves, getting to know more brilliant growers, farmers, fishermen and producers, and slowly bringing the latest project to life.
Different? Yes. Less PIG? Absolutely not.
