Ground floor, north end · Adults 18 and over
The evening is optional, and so is every room in it.
Three rooms open after four in the afternoon: a lounge with a fire, a small listening room, and a licensed gaming floor behind two sets of doors. All three close at one. None of them is on the way to your bed.
The lounge
Ground floor, quay side
16:00–01:00 daily. Open fire from October. Children until 21:00.
The largest of the three, and the one most guests never leave. Old armchairs that have been reupholstered twice, low tables, a wall of books left behind by twenty years of visitors, and a fire that someone lays properly at four each afternoon. Drinks come from the Ninth Counter next door.
Nothing is projected on the walls and no sport is shown. On Fridays a pianist plays from nine until eleven, quietly enough to talk over. This is where the difference between this house and a larger property is most obvious: the room is designed for sitting still.
The listening room
Behind the lounge
20:00–23:30, Thursday to Saturday. Fourteen seats. First come.
A panelled room with fourteen chairs, a pair of horn speakers from 1974, and a cabinet of records that guests are trusted to handle. One side of an album at a time, chosen by whoever is sitting nearest the turntable, and no talking while it plays. It sounds precious written down and is not in practice — most evenings it is three people and a glass of something.
The gaming floor
North end, ground floor
16:00–01:00 daily. Licensed. Photo ID checked at the door for every guest, every visit.
Entrance vestibule, north end
A single room of about 300 m² with eight tables and thirty-two machines, on its own air handling and behind an acoustic vestibule so that nothing carries into the lounge or up the stair. It is not large, it is not themed, and it is not designed to keep you inside: there are windows onto the quay, a clock on each wall, and the closing time is printed at the door and honoured to the minute.
Table games are dealt by hosts who work fixed shifts and are paid a salary rather than a commission on the drop. Minimum stakes are posted at every table before you sit down, and a host will explain any game from the beginning without being asked twice. There is no private room, no credit of any kind, and no marketing of odds, bonuses or free play anywhere on the property.
- Eight tables — blackjack, roulette, and one poker table on weekends
- Thirty-two machines, with stake and return information displayed on each
- Cash desk open the same hours as the floor; card and cash both accepted
- No cash machines on the gaming floor, by policy — the nearest is in the lobby
- Free water, coffee and food from the Ninth Counter at any point in the evening
House rules and limits
Entry
- Strictly 18 and over; photo ID every time, no exceptions for guests
- Entry refused to anyone visibly intoxicated, and refunds are not part of that conversation
- No photography or filming inside the room
- Phones on silent; calls taken in the vestibule
- No dress code, and no advantage given to anyone dressed a particular way
Your own limits
- Deposit, loss and time limits set at the cash desk in under five minutes
- Self-exclusion from one month to permanent, free, and honoured immediately
- A host will hold your card at the desk for the evening if you ask
- Hosts are trained to offer breaks and are instructed never to talk you out of one
- Staff will never discuss a guest's play with another guest, ever
If you would rather it were not there
Plenty of people book this house for the sauna and the coast path and would happily never see the north end of the ground floor. Say so at check-in: we will route you away from the vestibule, leave the floor off your key card, and stop mentioning it. Nobody will ask you again.