The Rose

Alex Bagner, formerly a design editor at Wallpaper magazine, and her husband Chris Hicks reopened a derelict former coaching inn on Deal's High Street as The Rose in May 2018, with no hospitality experience between them. Hicks is the great-grandson of John Matthews, who once owned the Thompson & Son brewery that had run the building as a tied pub. The hotel keeps eight individually decorated bedrooms above a ground-floor bar and restaurant. The Times and Sunday Times named it Boutique Hotel of the Year in 2025. The same couple opened a second venture nearby, The Blue Pelican wine bar, in 2024.