Stephan Langton Inn

Sometimes it is difficult to believe how much natural beauty can thrive not all that far from the urban distraction of London. One of the prime examples is a parcel of countryside of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the heart of the Surrey Hills where a large private estate and an even larger National Trust interest have combined their 5,000 acres to preserve and enhance the best.

It is in these surroundings that The Stephan Langton Inn thrives on a diet of sightseers, walkers, tourists and cyclists, as well as the regulars, who come to relax and enjoy the historic, wild and natural habitat. The present inn was tastefully built in the 1930s and still carries the name of the reforming Archbishop who brought King John to heel, resulting eventually in the signing of Magna Carta at Runnymede in June 1215.

Eating here is a fun business with not too much in the way of formality, but proper attention paid to the two main menus, one of which is the daily blackboard that cheerfully blurs the cut off point between starters and more substantial dishes. A toasted panini with a mug of fresh home made soup can look - and taste - like nectar after a strenuous day's walking in the surrounding hills.