Landmark Trust - Over 200 historic buildings in Britain are available for rental, usually by the week. "The Landmark Trust is Britain's best kept secret. Little known outside of England, it relies on word of mouth for publicity. Its Head of Letting estimates that a mere 10 per cent of Landmark bookings come from overseas and only half of those are from the United States and Canada combined. (Living Like a King by Mary R. Miley, British Heritage, February March 1999, Vol. 20 Issue 2, p50.)
In Sleeping Where Keats Died (Wall Street Journal, April 8, 2006. pg. P.4) Barry Newman describes a house near the Spanish Steps in Rome where poet John Keats died of tuberculosis in 1821. Newman rented this Landmark Trust property on Piazza di Spagna for $570 a night. Other Italian properties include the Casa Guidi in Florence where Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning lived in 1847, Sant'Antonio in Tivoli, near Rome, and Villa Saraceno in Venice.
In Live-In History: Vacationing in a Landmark (Wall Street Journal, Aug 22, 2006. pg. D.6) Bill Coles describes his stay in Auchinleck House in Ayrshire, Scotland, the birthplace of James Boswell. He tells you about other interesting Landmark properties: Luttrell's Tower in Hampshire ("as follies go, is an absolute beauty"); Freston Tower in Suffolk; Fort Clonque, in the Channel Islands; Crownhill Fort in Devon; Gothic Temple in Buckinghamshire; and the Pineapple in Dunmore, Scotland. Emma Tennant describes many of the properties in Superbly stopping the rot, The Spectator, March 11, 2000. Jonathan Glancey describes the Grange, the former home of Augustus Welby Pugin, In bed with Pugin (the Guardian, June 5, 2006.
Other Landmark Trust gems:
- By Jennifer Conlin, New York Times, April 19, 2009. "...We were going to pay £89 ($133.50 at $1.50 to the pound) for a room that slept four, complete with a private bath."