Adelphi Guest House

The Adelphi is a tall Victorian townhouse at 15 Stanley View, a turning off Broadway in Douglas, with a corner turret, stacked bay windows and its name carved into the stone above the door.

Steps climb from the pavement to the entrance past iron railings and a palm, in a terrace of painted houses on the slope behind the bay.

The lounge and the dining room

The house keeps its original proportions inside: high ceilings, picture rails, a painted dado and deep windows hung with long blue curtains. A guest lounge holds a long grey leather sofa and a low table under a wall-mounted television. Next to it a dining room is laid out with wooden tables, mats and white cups, and a small pantry alongside has a fridge, a toaster and a microwave beneath a bright red canvas.

Doubles, twins and a triple

Bedrooms are plain and light. White bedding, a grey or wooden headboard, a bedside lamp with a red shade, framed prints and an orchid on the sill. Rooms are made up as doubles, as twins with a double and a single, and as a triple with three single beds, which is the useful one for families. Every room has its own bathroom with a bath or shower, towels, free toiletries and a hairdryer, plus a kettle and a clock. One has a desk and an office chair.

Down Broadway to the bay

Stanley View sits a street back from the seafront, and Broadway drops straight down to the promenade and Douglas Beach, an easy walk from the door. The harbour, the ferry terminal and the shops of Douglas follow the curve of the water from there, with Douglas Head and its grassy clifftop on the far side.

Who stays here

Families and small groups who want separate proper bedrooms rather than one shared room, and anyone coming off the boat who would rather be a street back from the front than on it.