Courtyard Mews
Polly Checkland Harding
Courtyard Mews is a collection of serviced apartments with private parking, just north of Wakefield city centre. Highly reviewed on booking sites, these stylish, modern apartments each have a kitchen and dining area, private bathroom with a hairdryer, sofa and flat-screen TV. The kitchens come equipped with a dishwasher, microwave and kettle, the bathrooms with fluffy towels and bedrooms with Egyptian cotton sheets. Homely touches include candles, soft bedspreads, and a welcome pack of essentials, including tea, coffee, milk and wine. Hard not to love a place that classes wine as an essential.
The apartments at Courtyard Mews have double or king-sized beds, some of which can be split into singles, as well as sofa beds to accommodate extra guests; the penthouse has three. Cots are available on request, but no pets are allowed. Guests here are in good hands, too: the hosts, Linda and Michael Hale, have years of experience and live locally, which means they’re on hand if anything is needed. Located in an unassuming building one street over from another of our accommodation picks, Hotel Aparts Wakefield, Courtyard Mews is a ten-minute walk from jazz club and bar Wakefield Jazz, a great pick for some live music on a Friday night.
It’s also only a ten-minute walk into Wakefield city centre and Wakefield Cathedral, which underwent a multi million-pound restoration project in 2013 and has an internationally-renowned choir. Here too is the Gissing Centre, childhood home of an author Victoria Woolf called a ‘born writer’, and the Theatre Royal Wakefield, a Grade II listed building that was built in 1894 and is the design of renowned theatre architect Frank Matcham. Further on is the jewel in Wakefield’s crown: the multi award-winning art museum The Hepworth, housed in a £35m building and surrounded by one of the UK’s largest free public gardens. All this and more is within a half-hour walk of Courtyard Mews.
