The Varsity Hotel, Cambridge: review

With a rooftop bar, modern design touches and a brand new restaurant with a view, this Cambridge hotel is performing to a high degree

I know this is Cambridge, not Oxford, but from where I’m standing I can see five spires, a tall chapel tower (St John’s) and the lush grass of Jesus Green. It looks pretty dreamy.

I’m at the open floor-to-ceiling window of our bedroom at the Varsity, the boutique hotel opened in 2010 in a riverside spot between St John’s and Magdalen colleges. Its attached spa and steakhouse are in a 17th-century former brewery, redesigned by Conran and Partners, but the bedrooms, in the 21st-century section, are modern, though in a way that complements rather than clashes with the old stone all around.