Cotton House

The Cotton House is the only hotel on Mustique — and using the word "hotel" requires qualification, because it operates more like an intimate private house with a small number of well-appointed rooms and suites spread across a restored eighteenth-century plantation building and nearby cottages.

The main building was once a warehouse for cotton and sugar, and the conversion was done by Oliver Messel, the theatrical designer who became the island's de facto architect during its early development. Messel gave Mustique much of its visual identity: the coral stone walls, the wooden louvres, the tropical baroque flourishes that stop the houses looking generic. The Cotton House restaurant and bar are open to non-residents, making it a natural gathering point for villa renters and yacht arrivals. The pool terrace is one of the better places on the island to pass the hot middle hours of the day.

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A story
The Cotton House was originally a sugar and cotton storage warehouse built in the eighteenth century. Oliver Messel, the British theatrical designer famed for his work on sets and film productions, transformed it into a boutique hotel in the early 1970s. Messel spent his final years on Mustique, and the island owes much of its distinctive architectural character to his sensibility.