The Chesterhouse

The Chesterhouse takes up six addresses of a tall terrace on Loch Promenade, facing straight out across Douglas Bay. At night the frontage is floodlit and the bay windows stack four storeys up the elevation, which is a fair advertisement for what the front rooms look out on.

Stone steps and iron railings lead up from the promenade pavement to the door, the name board fixed between the ground-floor windows. The building keeps its moulded stone and its deep bays while the rooms behind them have been redone in a plainer, darker register.

Black desks and slate-dark showers

Bedrooms are done in greys and soft whites, with framed black-and-white photographs of the town on the walls. Each has a writing desk with a lamp, a kettle and a tray on it, and a mirror angled to catch the window light. The shower rooms are the sharpest break from the building’s age: dark marbled panelling floor to ceiling, a glazed walk-in enclosure and a round illuminated mirror. Every room has a bathroom to itself.

What the front rooms see

The ones worth asking for are set in the bays. Three tall windows wrap the corner, a pair of armchairs sits in the curve of them, and the view carries over the promenade gardens to the sand and the water. Layouts run to twins, doubles and a family room with a double bed and two singles. Not every room faces the bay, so it is worth saying which side you want.

Out along Loch Promenade

Douglas Beach begins on the far side of the road, and the promenade walk carries on round the bay from the front step. Douglas is the island’s capital and its busiest town, so the shops and the eating come with the address.

Who it suits

Couples and families who want a seafront address without a vast hotel wrapped around it, and anyone over on business who would rather have a desk and a bay window than a business park.