If Carlsberg did farms, they would probably look like Soho Farmhouse, the latest outpost of the Soho House empire of private clubs and hotels: beautiful, trendy, fun, and far more comfortable than your usual country house.

For despite its name, this ambitious project, set in Oxfordshire over a 100-acre estate, is less a farm than a country resort,  complete with restaurants, bars, spas, pools, gym, shops, stables, tennis courts, a man-made lake, a football-pitch, its own cinema and 40 lodges, which can accommodate 140 guests per night. While “real” countryside lovers might balk at this trendy, idealised, ultra-comfortable and luxurious version of a farm, it comes as an ideal escape for Londoners, only one and a half hour drive from London. read more