Brad and Kristie Lomas

You were both in different areas of hospitality before you took over Boys Hall, was it always the plan to take something like this on? BL. We had discussed it, but neither of us had any experience in renovating a property to this level. Previously, I’d managed big pub projects in London which had included some renovation and the management of a chain of pubs, but nothing like this. And Kristie? KL. I owned a café bar and a nightclub. So, no direct comparison, but a lot of shared hospitality experience. Did you sit down one day and say, right this is the next step of our lives… BL. No, we went on a romantic weekend, that’s where the seed of the idea came from – I took you to a place in Devon… KL. Do you mean when we went to the Pig? BL. No, it was when I took you for your birthday… KL. No, that was afterwards… BL. Sorry, it may have been easier if you’d interviewed us separately! Ha ha, this is the first time I have interviewed two people at the same time and I was wondering if it was going to be easier or harder! BL. Harder. KL. Definitely harder! No – it’s going to be fun.

KL. We would have had a finger in the air chat about the future at some point. I had a couple of bars in Kings Cross then, which I started up with a friend. One was a café bar and nightclub and the other was an underground member’s bar. Brad was still managing the chain of pubs at that time. He basically ran the operation for an outside investor. So, with your shared experiences and knowledge, you had that finger in the air conversation and agreed that one day, you would like to take on a new project like this… KL. That’s right, and then a few things fell into place. We had our first child, Harley, and the relationship with my business partner came to a natural end and she eventually bought me out. At that point, I thought – God, I’m never going back into hospitality again. I felt fed up and a bit burnt by the whole thing, so thought you know what, I’m just going be one of those mums that strolls up and down Northcote Road with a pram being a lady that lunches – it was going to be wonderful! However, about five months in, I was bored out of my mind and unbeknown to Brad at that time, signed myself up to various property alerts to see what was available. Every so often when he came in, I would say what do you think of this place or what do you think of that one…? BL. But at that time, you were also thinking that we should maybe move north, near to where my parents live, because you had experienced how friendly everyone was there when we visited. When we first got together, I also took you for a weekend in North Wales, which you weren’t sure about either to start with, but it was absolutely stunning and you loved that too.

So, these trips were opening your mind as to what possibilities there were out there. BL. That’s right and we actually went back to Wales a few times and spotted that there was a property available, not like this but a similar style and we thought, wow. It was overlooking Cardigan Bay and you could see Mount Snowdon in the background, but we were there in the height of summer and realised that it would be a very seasonal location. We did crunch the numbers though and actually put in an offer, but out of necessity, it had to be lower than the asking price and it wasn’t accepted. We were initially heartbroken but then said, well it’s obviously not for us. KL. I was then sat up in bed one morning, scrolling through properties when I saw a shot of the front of Boys Hall and I gasped. Brad asked me what was wrong! I said, look at this. Wow, he said, that’s beautiful, where is it? The listing said it was in Ashford but I went to school here and didn’t recognise it at all. I’ve obviously had more time to think about it since then and I can vaguely remember people attending things like NHS conferences here, but because it’s hidden away, unless you were invited, it wasn’t really somewhere that people would know about. We were due to come back to Kent that weekend, so I said to Brad that we should definitely go and see it, but when I phoned the agent he said that an offer had already been made. I’m not one to let things go easily, so I asked if we could still just go and have a look, but was again told no. In typical style, when we arrived in Kent for the weekend, I rang again and they could obviously tell that I was the persistent type, so they eventually agreed to give the vendor a call. He was actually happy to meet and we got on really well, but unfortunately there was still this offer on the table that he couldn’t renege on. Following the meeting, I called the agents back one final time to let them know that we would still be interested if the situation changed at all. BL. We went back to our everyday lives and then, one day, out of the blue, we got a call asking if we would like to meet up again with the owner, Marcus. Although we were hopeful, there was no indication as to what the meeting would be about, so I rushed down from London and along with your dad, we sat on the front lawn and had a chat with him – that was when the start of the journey began.

Sorry, it may have been easier if you'd interviewed us separately!

How long ago was that? BL. It was in 2019, so five years. And what involvement did your dad have, Kristie? KL. He’s an historical builder and he’s also our backer. Oh, so a fairly major part of the team. KL. That’s right. He has a background in hospitality as well and was the backer for my first business. He had also set up the pub in Mersham, where they live, as a cooperative, and I think he’d always dreamed of us coming back and potentially taking that over. He’d been listening to us talking about the property we had seen in Wales, and saw how excited we were about that, but he lives just down the road from here and loves old buildings, so I think he was probably very happy when this opportunity came up.

So what state was the building in when you took it over? BL. It wasn’t derelict but it was dilapidated. I think if it had been left for another two to three years without any serious love, it could have fallen into disrepair. We actually met the family of some previous owners this morning and they explained how the site had become less desirable over time. One reason for this was that it was being sold with less land but also the surrounding area was changing, it was a beautiful building but in the wrong place for someone who wanted to spend millions of pounds on a private house, so the number of potential buyers was limited. I don’t know for sure but I think if we hadn’t done what we did, it may eventually have just been knocked down. So, do you think you got a bit of a bargain? BL. The purchase price might be seen as attractive but to get it into a usable state has taken over and above what we may have saved on the purchase. Just going back to the very start of this journey, following your chat with Marcus. Kristie had been relentlessly chasing this property, so she was obviously very excited about it, her father was keen because it was close to home and he would therefore see more of his daughter, but what were you thinking? BL. Originally, I was nervous because I knew that the only way to make it work was to do what we’ve managed to achieve, but looking around at that point, it was obvious how much work that would require. You very much work as a partnership, is Brad the pragmatic part of the team? KL. Definitely, I’m the creative dreamer. I want to make everything look and be beautiful. That’s interesting and now is the right time to ask this next question. I will ask you both but will start with Brad – if you had to describe Kristie in just a few words, what would they be? BL. Whimsical. I’ve fallen in love with Kristie over and over again, but one of the times where I was just like, wow, this woman is incredible is when she did her take on Mary Poppins. If you had seen that, then you would know why I say whimsical! Wow, intriguing, are you a musical lover? KL. I was always in musicals at school but nothing more than on stage at school and singing in the shower. I’ve always been into Disney – I love singing, dancing, anything kind of theatrical. I really didn’t know Brad would say that! And sticking with Mary Poppins, are you happy to divulge which bit you sometimes perform? KL. A Spoonful of Sugar. We actually have two of the lamps from the set of the second film. I found them at an auction, which I was screamingly excited about. BL. Which, coincidentally, was at the time that we had absolutely no money. I said to her, what do we need these for, and she replied, because they’re from Mary Poppins! Looking back now, there’s a great story behind them, but that’s a good example of how different we can be.

And the same question to you Kristie – a few words to describe Brad. KL. Well, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said pragmatic. I don’t know if there is one word to describe equal measures of total seriousness but then a complete joker at the same time. I fell in love with joker Brad but there has also been much more of serious Brad over the last few years while we’ve been doing this. I think I’ve seen serious Brad because it’s always been when you are at work. It’s as if you have a thousand things on the to-do list that’s stored in your head. BL. The team ask me how I process so much information because there’s always so much going on. Kristie, do you get involved operationally as well? KL. I used to earlier on when we had a child minder. I would be hosting, on reception or working in the pub, but our child minder needed to leave after two years. At that time, the operation was settling down and I really didn’t want to miss out on any more time bringing up our children, so I stepped back. Oh – resilient – that’s another word for Brad. Yes, I can see that… KL. And… Hang on, more words are coming! BL. You’ve turned the tap on now. KL. He’s a solutions man! So Brad, you are at the heart the day-to-day running of operations here. What happens if you’re ill? Is it all in your head or is there a backup? BL. If you were to ask me that question in the first six months of opening, it was definitely all in my head, but it’s now on a sliding scale. To begin with, it was all brand new. We had this vision of how it could operate. We had thought about the spaces, how you transfer people from one room to another, how to make our guests feel comfortable and what to offer them, but it obviously took time for the team to learn the things that were in my head, and it’s often the little nuances that make the difference. And does the vision you have in your head always pan out? BL. No, but I can be fluid. I will look at something that doesn’t quite feel right and work out how to adapt it. I’d say that’s a difference between Kristie and me – I can be fluid, whereas she is very fixed about what’s going to work. Are you a perfectionist, Kristie? KL. I’m not sure, probably yes. Do you think Brad is a perfectionist? Absolutely, in fact that has to be his top word. I am also a perfectionist but the reason I questioned it, was because I’m not as much of a perfectionist as Brad. I think I’ve had to chill out for the both of us.

Can that no compromise approach get too overwhelming at times? BL. Sometimes, yes. The trouble is that we’re providing a service for people and you are therefore very conscious of what they are thinking when they come to eat or stay. There are probably a minimum of 20 to 30 touch points that a guest will interact with if they come here just for a drink but that increases to hundreds, depending on what their visit includes. All of those need to be on point because if you get just one wrong, it can impact all of the others. So, if anything, I think my perfectionism has got worse. You become obsessive and then over analyse things. One bad review can be really crushing and then you have to double your effort to rectify things. Are you’re constantly looking at reviews? KL. Yes. Whenever they ping up on our phone, whether it’s 6 o’clock in the morning or at midnight. We’ve tried to put some boundaries in place to allow ourselves to switch off because every so often an alert would come up and we could tell from the other person’s body language if it was a negative one. We do also get some really lovely feedback as well which is great to share with the team, so it works both ways.

You’ve described your individual characteristics, but how would you say you work as a team. BL. As a team, it works 90 percent of the time but we do have our 10 percents, like every couple I suppose. Kristie actually asked how we would work together when we first started, because we knew that we couldn’t be working on the same things at the same time. KL. I have naturally been drawn to managing the garden and am now passionate about that. It was something that I was good at and we weren’t able to afford a gardener then, so when we decided that I could go back to looking after our children, that became my 9-4 job. The garden is now my main focus, alongside social media and I’ll just tap in and out of other bits and bobs when I’m needed. So, you’ve both found the areas of the business where you feel most comfortable and enjoy. BL. I couldn’t do the social media, I’m just not that type. In that way it’s been amazing because although we’re very opposite in some ways, we compliment each other in the way that we work.

And is your work life now what you were expecting when you started this journey? KL. Neither of us were in luxury hospitality previously and I think that is something that we perhaps underestimated. It might sound a bit odd but I didn’t really appreciate what we were creating – the project just kept escalating. And was that because you were in control of the budget for the interior spec?! Well yes, that did escalate a bit but once you get into luxury… BL. She would come back and tell me that she had spent £7,000 on one bathroom. I would point out that was closer to the budget for all of the bathrooms but her reply would inevitably be that if I wanted her to produce a nice interior, then we would just have to spend a bit more than originally planned. Joking aside, Kristie was formidable in the fact that she knew exactly what she wanted and basically didn’t stop at anything less. KL. I did also get some incredible bargains from online shopping and auctions, but my point is that it was a three and a half year process and I think we’ve surpassed our initial expectations in every aspect of the project. The venue, the decor, the food, the delivery, the staffing, the product – everything has surpassed my expectations. Alongside my dad and his skills, I don’t think we all realised what we could achieve, but what comes alongside a venue of this level is that guests naturally have certain expectations. BL. I think we should also say that we may fall into the category of luxury but we’re not high luxury, we’re accessible and comfortable. That was one of the things that we wanted to create from the very beginning, we wanted a space that felt comfortable for a range of people, a relaxed environment that didn’t feel stuffy, where you didn’t have to have a big bank account or a prefix in front of your name to enjoy good food, a great night’s stay and experience quality service and a friendly welcome.

So, you’re five years in now? KL. Yes, but only open for two of those. Three and a half years was spent on the renovation. And thinking back to that stage – panic stations at any time? BL. Yes. Wrong decisions made? KL. Yes. I think I reached my lowest low and my highest high during that time. Multiple times sitting in the bath weeping, wondering what we’d done. BL. It was tough. KL. We were very tired during that process. We were the skinniest we’ve ever been and our children were obviously just babies then. BL. Because the purchase process was relatively quick, we were also having to close down the chapter of our lives in London, which was equally as significant. We had to exit form our London businesses, sell our house and move to Kent with two young children. There are three or four things in that list that most people would find significant on its own. BL. Yeah, so that was huge and then all of a sudden we were here with this project to take on. KL. The original idea was to rent the property out in order to get some income and allow us to renovate in stages. Why did that plan change? KL. Covid, but we did have one booking for Christmas that year, so I cleaned the house from top to bottom with a friend and my mum, and then put all the decorations up for a family that were staying for Christmas and New Year. BL. They were lovely and very understanding but every couple of hours we were getting a call, to say that something wasn’t working. They had organised a massage in one of the bedrooms on Christmas Eve but they couldn’t get the bath to work so these two lovely ladies were half naked on massage tables when I had to walk in to try and sort the plumbing out – I was thinking, what am I doing, I’ve come from managing this big business with something like 200 people and now I’m here, the day before Christmas trying to work out how to fix some taps.

So, you could say that Covid came at the right time for you because it dictated how you needed to progress. BL. It focused the mind but during those next three and a half years, Kristie and I had pretty much no formal wage, so when Covid kicked in we knew that we had to tackle the project in one hit, from beginning to end, which is why we did everything ourselves and just tried to tick off any challenges as they emerged. The unknown, the passion we had for the project and being tenacious took us to places that we never felt were possible – that’s just human nature and I suppose that determination would sum up the project. That’s why there were such big highs mixed with horrible lows, because at times we didn’t know how we were going to get it done but we couldn’t stop – if we had stopped that would have been it, game over and the fallout would have just been too big for the family, so it had to work. KL. And also, the property had been on the market for five years so how many more years would it have taken for us to sell it if we had given up. BL. Especially as by that time, we had actually made it worse. It wasn’t in a great condition when we got it, but by the time we were halfway through the project it was in a far worse state because we were still at the stage of breaking the eggs before we could make the omelette. It was no longer a home, it was more like a toilet block with only the vision of what it could look like in our heads. We had no architect or interior plans to work to, we were doing it bit by bit as we went along.

I’m assuming the best part of the renovation phase was when it ended? BL. No, to be honest that was the worst bit because then we opened. Throughout the build, we kept saying to ourselves that it was going to be so great when we actually opened but then, when we got to that stage, it dawned on us that was going to be equally as difficult, just in a different way. KL. That was a really weird day because we suddenly had to change from master renovators, that hadn’t really interacted with anybody for years, to professional restaurateurs overnight. We didn’t have any money throughout the build so hadn’t gone anywhere, we hadn’t eaten out, we hadn’t drunk… BL. Well, we did drink but only at home – I could tell you about every Malbec from the discount aisle in the local garage! And can you think of one occasion where you just thought, that’s it, I’ve had enough? KL. There were too many of those. BL. There were a lot of strains on our relationship during that period. It was disconnected at times because we were having to make so many decisions and often our ideas were different, so it was really challenging. Well, we need to wrap things but before we do, you hinted at the potential of a bigger plan emerging at some point. Is this the sole focus for the time being? BL. This is very much the sole focus for now. There’s still a lot here that we need to do. That will include additional accommodation and there’s more that we can do for our guests. As with any business, the first two years of being open have been really tough and the three years prior to that were also extremely difficult. KL. We have some smaller projects in mind, such as the stables area, which we’re working on clearing so it can be used as another event space and then the pond area, where there’s about three-quarters of an acre – we plan to add nine or ten luxury cabins there, which will take us up to about 20 rooms. You can also hear my dad on a digger in the background, he’s busy restoring the walled garden where he’s built a treatment room and we’re planning to have a sauna and plunge pool, which will sit alongside some beautiful architectural landscaping. BL. So, a lot of exciting things in the pipeline but you know what, for just a little while, I think we need to take stock, gather our thoughts and enjoy a bit of us time whilst we prepare for the next stage of the journey.