Babington House

Babington opened in 1998 as Soho House's first move out of the city, and it more or less invented the template for the rural members' club. The Georgian house sits in eighteenth-century grounds with a lake, a walled garden and its own deconsecrated church.

The thirty-odd bedrooms are spread across the main house, coach house, stable block and outlying cottages, so the character varies considerably - some are grand and panelled, others are cabin-like. Furnishings come largely from the group's own homeware line.

Facilities are the real attraction: indoor and outdoor pools, a gym, a Pilates studio, contrast therapy suites, padel and tennis courts, a cricket pitch and a small cinema. Members get priority, but non-members can book bedrooms at public rates, and Bath is half an hour away.