The Town House

The Town House is a Victorian hotel at 24 Loch Promenade, facing straight out across Douglas Bay. Its rooms are laid out as apartments and suites rather than plain bedrooms, and most come with a kitchen.

The front is cream stucco with the name lettered above the bay window, black iron railings along the pavement and a short flight of steps up to a dark door. The horse trams come clopping past on their way along the seafront.

Apartments with kitchens

Behind the tall windows the accommodation runs from a studio, where the bed sits beside its own row of grey cabinets, up to one- and two-bedroom apartments with a separate sitting room. The kitchens are properly fitted: hob and oven, microwave, dishwasher, kettle, toaster and a coffee machine, with a dining table and chairs pulled up to the glass. Sitting rooms have a sofa, a television and a desk. Downstairs there is a small gym with a treadmill, cross trainer, rowing machine and exercise bike ranged against a mirrored wall.

Beds and a roll-top bath

Bedrooms are quiet and neutral, lifted here and there by red or tartan, and several have extra-long beds. Suites and one-bedroom apartments add a sofa bed in the living room, while the two-bedroom apartments give each bedroom a double of its own. Bathrooms are private and well stocked, with robes, slippers and toiletries set out, and one has a roll-top bath with gold telephone taps under the window.

Looking out over the bay

From the sea-facing rooms you look across the planted beds and promenade railings to the beach, with the Tower of Refuge on its rock out in the water. The shops, harbour and ferry terminal of Douglas lie along the same front.

Who stays here

Couples and families who want the run of an apartment with a reception desk downstairs, and anyone working on the island for a stretch.