Edit No.28
Surrey, Beyond the Green
Foxhills · Starling · Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden · Botley Hill Farmhouse · Beaverbrook
Surrey is the county London leaves for the weekend, and its reputation has been fixed for decades: golf, gravel drives, heathland pine and a manor house at the end of it. That reputation is not wrong. It is just no longer the whole of it.
This edit looks at what the county has become underneath the cliché. It begins at Foxhills, an estate that has been abbey land, a Regency country house by one of the best architects of his generation, a convalescent home, wartime farmland and — improbably — an airline's leisure investment, before settling into a country club where golf is now one option among many.
A few miles east, on Esher High Street, Starling makes the same argument in forty seats. Nick Beardshaw spent fourteen years in Tom Kerridge's kitchens before opening a bistro in his home town; Michelin gave it a star five months later and the restaurant declined to become grander because of it.
South-west of both, down a lane near Ockley, the Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden has spent more than forty years refusing to let either art or landscape take precedence. Ten acres of ponds, woodland and architectural planting hold an exhibition that is rehung every year, with entry pre-booked and numbers kept deliberately low.
East again, at the top of the North Downs, Botley Hill Farmhouse takes the county's history literally. A Tudor merchant bought the farmhouse in 1546; his family's grasshopper still hangs on the sign, the beef comes from the Titsey Estate over the fence and the beer carries the same names. It only became a pub in 1994.
And at Leatherhead, Beaverbrook has done the opposite of trading on its guest book. The estate Churchill visited has built its most contemporary reason to visit around the Coach House Spa, where Brian Clarke's stained glass, an apothecary garden and a treatment hut out in the wildflower meadow matter more than the history in the main house.
What follows through the edit is the same question: which parts of Surrey still earn the visit on their own terms, rather than on the strength of a postcode.
In this edit
Living — Wellness
Foxhills — The Country Club That Stopped Being Just a Golf Club
An abbey's woodland, an airline's unlikely investment and a manor house designed by Disraeli's cousin. Foxhills has spent two centuries finding new reasons to exist.
Place — Food
Starling — The Michelin Star That Kept Its Nerve
A Michelin star arrived five months after the doors opened. The restaurant didn't change to fit it.
Experience — Art & Landscape
Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden — The Garden Built So Neither Wins
A political journalist and a landscape designer found a cottage advertised in a Sunday paper. More than forty years later, the garden they created still follows one rule: neither art nor nature gets to dominate.
Place — Food & History
Botley Hill Farmhouse — Five Centuries at the Top of the Downs
Bought by a Tudor merchant in 1546, later a tearoom and only relatively recently a pub. Nearly five centuries on, much of what reaches the table still comes from the estate outside.
Living — Wellness
Beaverbrook — The Country House Estate Rebuilt Around Wellness
Churchill once came for the company. But the most interesting evolution at Beaverbrook is happening away from the main house, beneath Brian Clarke's stained glass and out in the meadow.
Questions
- What does Edit No.28 cover?
- Surrey beyond its golf-and-gravel-drive reputation — the estates, kitchens and places in the county that hold up on their own merits. It opens with Foxhills in Ottershaw, Starling in Esher and the Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden near Ockley.
- How far is Surrey from London?
- Most of the county sits within an hour of central London by car or train. Ottershaw, where Foxhills is, is about 45 minutes from the city and around 20 from Heathrow. Esher is closer still, roughly half an hour by train from Waterloo. Ockley is further south, in the Surrey Hills, and realistically needs a car.
- Is there a Michelin-starred restaurant in the edit?
- Yes. Starling on Esher High Street earned its first Michelin star in February 2025, five months after opening, and retained it for 2026.
- Is there anything in the edit beyond hotels and restaurants?
- Yes. The Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden at Ockley is ten acres of woodland, water and planting holding an annual exhibition of 150 to 200 contemporary sculptures, with entry pre-booked and daily numbers limited.
- Which historic pub does the edit cover?
- Botley Hill Farmhouse, high on the North Downs near Warlingham. The Grade II-listed farmhouse was bought by the Tudor merchant Sir John Gresham in 1546, spent decades as a tearoom and only became a licensed pub in 1994. Its beef comes from the surrounding Titsey Estate.
- Where should you go in the edit for a spa?
- Beaverbrook, near Leatherhead. Its Coach House Spa was designed around stained glass and mosaics by the artist Brian Clarke, with an apothecary garden, a 20-metre indoor pool, heated outdoor pool, six treatment rooms and a private treatment hut out in the wildflower meadow.
- Is this edit only about country clubs?
- No. Foxhills is the opening piece; the edit widens out from there across the county, from restaurants to gardens, towns and landscape.
- How are places chosen for an edit?
- On whether they hold up in use rather than in marketing. Everything here was assessed for what it actually does — the building, the kitchen, the facilities, the crowd — and written up on that basis.