A beacon of hospitality on a remote cliff-top between the English Channel and the rolling downs, this decommissioned 19th-century lighthouse found new purpose in 2010 as a unique B&B. It offers superb 360-degree views from the lantern room, taking in the Seven Sisters chalk cliffs and the South Downs.

You can dine in style in the Grand Ballroom or hunker down in the cosy old Pilchard inn at this extraordinary Art Deco hotel on a tidal island just a sea tractor ride from the 21st century.

You can imagine nodding off in an armchair over the latest issue of Samuel Johnson's Idler, or William Hazlitt's polemics in the Tatler, when you step into this time-warp hotel and close the door on trendy Soho. It was here, on a Georgian terrace in the 1820s, that essayist Hazlitt penned his valediction, and antiques and furnishings keep faith with a bygone age.

Banish images of fast-food outlets and slot machines when you break your journey at Tebay on wild and woolly Shap Fell, 60 miles from the Scottish border.

Reopened in July 2025 after a £3 million refurbishment for the Original Collection, this extraordinary Jacobean-style manor house in landscaped gardens, the work of an eccentric Victorian squire and parson, has country-house style bedrooms and fine-dining restaurant, dogs and children welcome.

Occupying one of Britain's prettiest disused stations and popular with honeymooners, this excellent B&B offers a choice of bedrooms in the station building and restored, mahogany-fitted Pullman coaches, with cream teas served in the waiting room or on the platform, and a locally sourced dinner in the rare Edwardian Pullman dining car, Princess Ena.

Wildly exuberant, carefully created bedrooms are themed on the Georgian Grand Tour and Victorian globe trotting at this 18th-century redbrick building, home to an artisan bakery/café as well as a wine bar, pizzeria and hair salon.

One of the UK's most unusual B&Bs, this windmill on the old quay in reed beds beside the River Glaven has bedrooms of great character in the mill itself, with more contemporary accommodation in outbuildings, and a restaurant serving a three-course dinner form Thursday to Saturday.

Scottish culture and celebration are at the heart of the Urquhart family's low-built, whitewashed hotel, bookshop, art gallery, café/bar, restaurant and music venue near the ferry terminal on Loch Broom, a social hub with simple bedrooms, enthusiastic young staff, short and interesting locally sourced menus, and a bunkhouse for those on a budget.

A1950s office block in central Bristol has been reimagined as a cool B&B, with neat bedrooms, shiny rooftop caravans, a relaxed vibe and a courtyard garden, all providing affordable accommodation beside St Nicholas market, minutes from the bars and restaurants of Wapping Wharf.

Swathed with creepers and bedecked with flowers, this wildly atmospheric B&B stands on a cobbled street in a medieval citadel with views over Romney Marsh.

An Elizabethan fortress house within star-shaped defensive walls is run by the Francis family as a welcoming hotel, with atmospheric castle rooms, dog-friendly, cottage-style garden accommodation, atmospheric dungeon bar, and restaurant serving freshly landed fish and seafood.

There is 'an air of a chic curiosity shop' about this singular hotel with café/deli, centred on a Palladian-style villa, up a narrow lane, where resident cats sun themselves on the front lawn.