There Is a Plate on the Door of Room 20
Somewhere on the first floor, a small plate screwed to one of the doors will stop you in the corridor. It reads: 20, The Beatles Suite. Inside, a sepia portrait of the four of them hangs above a desk in a room with its own fireplace. They stayed here in May 1965 while filming Help! out on Salisbury Plain, and the story the town still tells is that fans got into the hotel garage, found the limousine unlocked, and stripped it of caps, clothing and even the cigarette ends from the ashtrays.
That is the kind of hotel this is. A listed Georgian coaching inn on Church Street with a dark tiled hall, a fanlight over the front door, a sweeping staircase and a bar with a brick wall behind the optics. The BBC filmed a Miss Marple story in the garden. Ask at reception about Room 20 when you book, because it is not always the room you get by default.
A Coaching Inn, and Older Than It Looks
Historic England lists the building under entry 1182444 and dates the standing five-bay block to the early nineteenth century, with eighteenth-century fabric behind it, standing on the site of the older Chopping Knife Inn. It has been Wyndersham House, it has been the Avon, and it became the Antrobus Arms around 1962. Marketing copy that calls it seventeenth-century is stretching things; the listing is the record.
Walk in through the portico and you get the hall: dark stone floor, arched fanlight, a curving staircase with an iron balustrade running up to the first floor. All twenty bedrooms are up those stairs and there is no lift, so plan for that before you arrive with heavy bags. The entrance itself has four steps. Ask staff for a hand and they will give you one, because the staff are the second-highest-rated thing about this hotel after the position.
The Garden, the Bar and the Bit Nobody Sugar-Coats
Behind the inn there is a walled Victorian garden with an ornamental fountain, a sun terrace under an ornate iron arch, and picnic tables on the lawn. It is where the weddings happen and where the Miss Marple crew set up, and on a warm evening it is genuinely lovely. Inside there is a licensed bar with real ales, an open fire in the lounge, and a breakfast room where a full English is cooked to order.
Now the part the listings skate over. Guests keep using the same words: tired, dated, needs investment. One in July called it a lovely building badly in need of a facelift, and scored the stay six out of ten while praising the staff. Another said it does not pretend to be anything it is not, which is fair and is probably the right frame. The Thai restaurant that ran inside the hotel for a decade moved out to the High Street in January 2025, so ignore any listing still promising an on-site Thai kitchen.
Why Book The Antrobus Hotel?
This is a characterful old coaching inn with a genuinely good position and a genuinely tired fabric, and guests rate it exactly that way. Here is what you are getting and what you are accepting.
Two miles from the stones
Stonehenge is about eight minutes by car, or a forty to fifty minute walk on byways and the A303 underpass if the weather is kind. You are also in the middle of Amesbury rather than on a bypass, so the shops, the pubs and the free History Centre are a few minutes on foot. Location is the highest-scoring thing about a stay here by a wide margin.
You can book Room 20
The Beatles stayed here in May 1965 while filming Help! on Salisbury Plain, and the door of Room 20 still carries a plate reading The Beatles Suite, with a sepia portrait of the band inside. Ask reception about it when you book. Very few hotels in England can offer a room with a verified story attached.
A walled garden with a fountain
Behind the inn there is a proper Victorian walled garden with an ornamental fountain, a sun terrace and picnic tables under the trees. The BBC filmed a Miss Marple story in it. On a summer evening it is the best thing about the place, and it is why the hotel still takes weddings.
Set your expectations honestly
One guest in July called it a lovely building that is very tired and needs investment, and that is the most representative sentence anyone has written about it. The staff score well, the breakfast scores well, the position scores well, and the fabric does not. Book it for what it is and you will be fine.
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Interesting Points About The Antrobus Hotel
- The Beatles Suite is Room 20, not Room 10 as several accounts have it, and the door still carries a plate reading 20, The Beatles Suite. Inside there is a large sepia portrait of the band on the wall. They stayed here in May 1965 while filming Help! on Salisbury Plain, and fans stripped their unlocked limousine in the hotel garage of caps, clothing and even the cigarette ends from the ashtrays.
- The Thai restaurant that ran inside the hotel for about a decade, Siam Smile, moved out to 35 High Street in January 2025. Listings across several platforms still advertise an on-site Thai restaurant, and one still claims three restaurants. Both are out of date. Confirm what hot food is being served beyond breakfast and the bar before you arrive.
- There is no hotel car park at all. The Church Street pay-and-display directly opposite is run by Smart Parking, holds about 40 spaces, has no height restriction and is open around the clock. Amesbury Town Council publishes the tariff: 1 hour 50p, 4 hours £2.70, 24 hours £6.20. It is enforced by number-plate cameras and guests do get penalty notices for not paying properly.
- Every bedroom is on the first floor, up stairs, and there is no lift. The portico entrance has four steps. Some rooms have a shower cubicle rather than a bath, so ask when you book if that matters. No accessible bathroom is documented anywhere.
- The building is listed by Historic England under entry 1182444, which dates the standing five-bay block to the early 19th century with 18th-century fabric behind it, on the site of the older Chopping Knife Inn. Marketing copy calling it a 17th-century coaching inn overstates it. It was Wyndersham House in 1848, the Avon by 1923, and became the Antrobus Arms around 1962.
- The walled Victorian garden, with its ornamental fountain and sun terrace, was used as a location by the BBC for the Joan Hickson Miss Marple film Nemesis.
- Do not confuse it with Antrobus House at 39 Salisbury Road, a separate Grade II wedding venue in the same town with its own company, nor with the village of Antrobus in Cheshire.
Rooms & Accommodation at The Antrobus Hotel
Standard Double Room
2 guests · About 20 m² · Balcony
Best for a couple who want their own bit of outside space, because this is the only room type sold with a balcony. It runs to around 20 m² with a double bed, a desk and a private bathroom. Like every room here it is on the first floor up a flight of stairs, so ask for help with bags if you need it.
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Superior Double Room
2 guests · About 20 m² · Garden view · Full bath
Choose this if you want a proper bath at the end of a day walking the Stonehenge landscape, and a window over the walled garden rather than the street. It is the same size as the Standard but it swaps the balcony for the bath and the view, which most guests would take. Several reviewers who booked one described the room itself as comfortable and clean even while calling the building tired.
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Standard Twin Room
2 guests · About 20 m² · Twin beds
Works well for two friends or colleagues doing the Stonehenge circuit and wanting separate beds. It carries the same kit as the doubles, at about 20 m², and it is the sensible pick for an A303 overnight when you are back on the road by nine.
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Family Room (2 Adults + 2 Children)
2 adults and 2 children · Private bathroom with bath
The right choice for a family doing Stonehenge, Woodhenge and Old Sarum over a weekend without splitting across two rooms. Note that children aged six and over are charged as adults, that a cot for under-ones is available on request for a small nightly charge, and that no extra beds can be added.
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Family Suite
Family · About 40 m² · Private bathroom
Best for a family who want the space and the character of the old building, with dark ceiling beams overhead and a dormer window onto Church Street. At roughly 40 m² it is the biggest thing the hotel sells, and it is the one to ask for if the heritage is part of why you booked.
Check PricesIs The Antrobus Hotel Right for You?
Best Suited For
- Stonehenge visitors who want to be in a real town rather than beside the A303
- Beatles and heritage travellers, given Room 20 and a Historic England listing
- Walkers heading for Vespasian's Camp, Woodhenge and the Cursus on foot
- Dog owners, since dogs are welcome for a nightly charge and bowls are provided
Worth Considering Alternatives If
- Anyone who needs step-free access, because every room is up stairs with no lift
- Guests expecting a recently refurbished hotel, which this is not and does not claim to be
- Drivers who want to park at the door, since the car park opposite is pay-and-display
- Anyone counting on an on-site restaurant for dinner, which has moved out to the High Street
Amenities and Facilities
In Your Room
- Private bathroom, with a bath in some rooms and a shower cubicle in others
- Flat-screen TV
- Tea and coffee making facilities
- Desk and telephone
- Iron and ironing facilities
- Wardrobe, carpet and heating
- Fan provided on request in warm weather
- Free Wi-Fi
- Not available: Air conditioning
Food and Drink
- Licensed bar with real ales and wine
- Cooked-to-order full English breakfast, charged separately
- Breakfast served mornings, later at weekends
- Special diet menus on request
- Open fire in the shared lounge
- Not available: On-site Thai restaurant
Garden and Events
- Walled Victorian garden with an ornamental fountain
- Sun terrace and outdoor furniture
- Picnic area on the lawn
- Licensed for weddings and ceremonies
- Marquee, function and banquet facilities at extra cost
- Shared lounge and TV area
Access, Parking and Policies
- Pay-and-display car park directly opposite, open 24 hours, no height restriction
- Accessible bays in the car park opposite
- Luggage storage and daily housekeeping
- Front-door key issued for late returns
- Dogs welcome for a nightly charge, bowls provided
- Children of all ages welcome, those aged 6 and over charged as adults
- Cot available for under-ones on request for a nightly charge
- Not available: On-site car park
- Not available: Lift
- Not available: Step-free entrance
- Not available: Accessible bathroom
- Not available: Swimming pool or spa
- Not available: Extra beds
- Not available: Smoking indoors
Location and Getting Around
Amesbury is a small Wiltshire market town on the River Avon at the edge of Salisbury Plain, just off the A303, and it is the natural base for Stonehenge two miles away. The Antrobus stands on Church Street in the historic core, opposite the Abbey Church of St Mary and St Melor and a few minutes from the free Amesbury History Centre. It is also, by the University of Buckingham's Blick Mead dating, the longest continuously occupied settlement in Britain, lived in every millennium since 8820 BC.
Two practical things. There is no direct bus from Amesbury to Stonehenge: the tour bus runs from Salisbury, not from here, so you walk, drive or take a taxi. And the Stonehenge visitor centre is a separate site from the stones themselves, with a shuttle between the two included in admission. Salisbury station is the useful rail arrival at eight or nine miles, with Salisbury Reds X5 and Activ8 buses into Amesbury roughly every half hour.
- Abbey Church of St Mary and St Melor: Across the road, a 2-minute walk
- Amesbury History Centre: A few minutes on foot along Church Street
- Vespasian's Camp and Blick Mead: About 650 m, an 8-minute walk
- Stonehenge: About 2 miles, an 8-minute drive
- Woodhenge: About 1.5 miles, a 5-minute drive
- Durrington Walls: About 1.6 miles, a 5-minute drive
- Old Sarum: About 6 miles, a 12-minute drive
- Salisbury Cathedral and Magna Carta: About 8 miles, a 20-minute drive
- Ludgershall Castle: About 10 miles, a 20-minute drive
- Southampton Airport: About 32 miles, roughly an hour
Getting to Key Locations
Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0
Woodhenge and Durrington Walls
5 min drive
About 1.5 miles north, a 5-minute drive or a half-hour walk, Woodhenge is a Neolithic timber circle rediscovered from the air in 1925, and Durrington Walls beside it is the largest complete henge in Britain and probably the settlement that housed the people who built Stonehenge. Both are free, open and usually empty, which is the opposite of the stones themselves.
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Photo: garethwiscombe, CC BY 2.0
Stonehenge
8 min drive
About two miles away, an 8-minute drive or a 40 to 50 minute walk by the A303 underpass and byways, Stonehenge draws over a million visitors a year to a stone circle raised between roughly 3000 and 2000 BC. Standard admission gives you the roped path around the stones rather than access among them; only the limited early and late Stone Circle Experience visits go inside. Book a timed ticket in advance.
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Photo: Mike Peel, CC BY-SA 4.0
Salisbury Cathedral
20 min drive
About eight miles south, a 20-minute drive or roughly half an hour on the Salisbury Reds X5, Salisbury Cathedral has Britain's tallest spire at 123 metres and holds one of only four surviving 1215 originals of Magna Carta in its Chapter House. Old Sarum, the Iron Age hillfort and abandoned first cathedral city, sits on the way in.
View on MapHow to Get to The Antrobus Hotel
- By car from the A303: Leave the A303 at the Countess roundabout and follow signs into Amesbury town centre. Church Street runs past the Abbey church; the hotel is the painted Georgian frontage with the portico. Park in the pay-and-display directly opposite rather than looking for a hotel car park, because there is not one.
- By train and bus: Take a train to Salisbury, which has direct services from London Waterloo, Bristol, Bath and Southampton. From the station, a Salisbury Reds X5 or Activ8 bus runs to Amesbury roughly every half hour and takes about thirty minutes, leaving a short walk to Church Street. A taxi from Salisbury station takes fifteen to twenty minutes.
- Getting to Stonehenge from the door: There is no bus from Amesbury to Stonehenge; the Stonehenge Tour bus runs from Salisbury instead. Drive it in about eight minutes, take a taxi, or walk the two miles in forty to fifty minutes using the A303 underpass and the byways across the World Heritage landscape. Remember the visitor centre and the stones are separate sites with a shuttle between them.
- Arriving after nine at night: Reception takes check-ins from 14:00 to 21:00. If you will be later, ring ahead on +44 1980 623163 and it can be arranged. Guests are given a front-door key alongside the room key, so you can come and go once reception has closed for the evening. Check-out is by 11:00.
Amesbury and the Stonehenge Landscape
Most people treat Amesbury as the place you sleep before Stonehenge. It deserves better. The Blick Mead dig beside Vespasian's Camp, 650 metres from the hotel door, produced more than 31,000 worked flints, the largest Mesolithic assemblage recorded in Britain, and dated occupation here to every millennium since 8820 BC. The lead archaeologist put it plainly: the site blows the lid off the Neolithic revolution. There is a free History Centre on Church Street that tells the whole story.
The World Heritage landscape around the town is free to walk and mostly empty. Woodhenge, Durrington Walls, the Cursus and the King Barrows are all open ground reached on foot or by a five-minute drive, and the footpaths from Amesbury cross them. Salisbury, its cathedral spire and its Magna Carta are twenty minutes south. Come in spring or autumn for the light and the space; the summer solstice on the 20th and 21st of June fills every bed in the town, as does the winter solstice in December.
Watch: Ten Thousand Years of Amesbury
A tour of the Amesbury History Centre, a few minutes' walk from the hotel, telling the story of the town whose past runs back further than any other continuously occupied place in Britain.
Is The Antrobus Hotel worth it?
Yes, if you are here for Stonehenge and you want character over polish. You get a listed Georgian coaching inn in the middle of Amesbury, two miles from the stones, with a walled Victorian garden, a licensed bar, warm staff and a room the Beatles slept in. Skip it if you need a lift, step-free access, parking at the door or a recently refurbished bedroom, because guests are consistent and unambiguous that the building is tired and overdue some investment.
What Guests Say About The Antrobus Hotel
Scores and review counts are aggregated from verified guest bookings on major travel platforms.
Pleasant
There is no mystery in these reviews and we are not going to dress them up. Guests like the position, they like the staff, they like the breakfast, and they think the building needs money spending on it. The words tired, dated and run-down recur in review after review, alongside praise for how friendly the team is and how convenient the location proves to be. The most useful summary came from a guest in July who said it does not pretend to be anything it is not. Book it on that basis and it works; book it expecting a refurbished hotel and it will not.
Rated it fair value for the money and singled out an excellent breakfast, while finding the room and the hotel rather worn.
Called the position handy and the breakfast good value, and liked that the place is honest about what it is, even if it is a little dated.
Picked out the gardens, the staff and the room as the things she liked, with nothing at all on the other side of the ledger.
Found the staff helpful and friendly and reckoned the breakfast, charged separately, was worth paying for. Described the stay as fine for a night as long as you are not expecting the Ritz, noted a few broken things in the room, and used the Central car park on a Saturday evening.
Enjoyed friendly staff and friendly locals, slept well and thought it decent value, with shops, pubs and restaurants steps away and Stonehenge a few miles off. There was no air conditioning, though an oscillating fan was provided.
Praised a friendly, helpful team and a comfortable room at a reasonable rate, and reckoned it is the closest hotel to Stonehenge at about a thirty-minute walk. He loved the Beatles and Agatha Christie history but joked it probably has not been repainted since the band stayed.
Had warm, helpful staff and a really comfortable, clean room within walking distance of the party she came for. She was sad to see such a lovely building so tired and in need of investment.
Rated the position as the thing that worked, and the shower as the thing that did not.
Arrived to find no water, which staff sorted out quickly, and then had a bathroom light that switched itself on and off through the stay. Still rated the location.
Called it convenient and great for the position, and said the building feels old and weathered and could do with a revamp.
Good to Know Before You Book
Parking is opposite, and camera-enforced
The hotel has no car park. Use the Church Street pay-and-display directly opposite, run by Smart Parking, about 40 spaces, open around the clock with no height restriction. Amesbury Town Council publishes the tariff: 50p for an hour, £2.70 for four hours, £6.20 for 24 hours, payable by cash, card, contactless or app. It is enforced by number-plate cameras and guests do get penalty notices, so pay before you walk away. Accessible bays are in the same car park.
Every room is up stairs
All twenty bedrooms are on the first floor, reached by the staircase, and there is no lift. The portico entrance has four steps. Some rooms have a shower cubicle instead of a bath, so say which you need when you book. No accessible bathroom is documented and one listing states plainly that the hotel is not barrier-free, so contact the property directly if mobility is a factor.
Breakfast costs extra, and is worth it
A full English is cooked to order and charged separately from the room, at around £8 to £9.50 a head according to recent guests, served on weekday mornings and a little later at weekends. Guests rate it well, including several who were otherwise lukewarm about the stay. Special diets can be catered for on request.
Payment, pets and late arrivals
Dogs are welcome at a charge of around £10 per dog per night, with bowls provided; confirm the current figure when you book. One listing says the property is cash only, which is contradicted by other platforms and by guests who paid by card, so check when you reserve rather than turning up with no cash. Cancellation and prepayment terms depend on the rate you choose and are shown before you confirm. Check-in runs to 21:00 and later arrivals are given a front-door key.
Call The Antrobus Hotel
Want to ask whether Room 20 is free, request a bath rather than a shower, or arrange a late arrival? Reception answers the phone.
+44 1980 623163Photos of The Antrobus Hotel
Frequently Asked Questions
Stonehenge is about two miles away, roughly eight minutes by car. You can walk it in forty to fifty minutes using the A303 underpass and the byways across the World Heritage landscape, and guests do. There is no bus from Amesbury to the stones, because the Stonehenge Tour bus runs from Salisbury instead. Note also that the visitor centre is a separate site from the stones, with a shuttle between them included in admission.
No, there is no hotel car park. The Church Street pay-and-display sits directly opposite, run by Smart Parking, with about 40 spaces, no height restriction and 24-hour access. Amesbury Town Council publishes the tariff at 50p for one hour, £2.70 for four hours and £6.20 for 24 hours, payable by cash, card, contactless or app. It is enforced by number-plate cameras, so pay properly before leaving the machine.
Breakfast is not included in a room-only rate. It is a full English cooked to order and charged separately, recently reported at around £8 to £9.50 per person. It runs on weekday mornings from early and a little later at weekends. Guests rate it well and several who were otherwise unimpressed still recommended paying for it.
There is a licensed bar with real ales and an open fire in the lounge. There is no longer a Thai restaurant on site: Siam Smile, which operated inside the hotel for around a decade, relocated to 35 High Street in January 2025. Several listings still advertise it, and one still claims three restaurants, which is out of date. Ask the hotel what hot food is available beyond breakfast if you need dinner in.
No. All twenty bedrooms are on the first floor, reached by stairs, and there is no lift. The portico entrance has four steps. Some rooms have a shower cubicle rather than a bath. No accessible bathroom or ground-floor room is documented, and one third-party listing states the hotel is not barrier-free. Accessible bays exist in the public car park opposite. Contact the hotel directly if you have mobility needs.
Yes, in May 1965, while filming Help! on Salisbury Plain. Room 20 carries a plate on the door reading The Beatles Suite and a sepia portrait of the band inside. Local accounts record that fans got into the hotel garage where their limousine was parked and stripped it of caps, clothing and even the cigarette ends from the ashtrays. The walled garden was also used by the BBC as a location for the Joan Hickson Miss Marple film Nemesis.
Dogs are welcome. The property has quoted a charge of around £10 per dog per night and provides bowls, though the figure is worth confirming when you book. No weight limit or maximum number is published. The hotel is non-smoking throughout, with a designated smoking area outside.
Check-in runs from 14:00 to 21:00 and check-out is by 11:00. If you will arrive after nine, telephone ahead on +44 1980 623163. Guests are issued a front-door key alongside their room key, so you can come and go once reception has shut for the night.
It depends what you are after. The Standard Double is the only type with a balcony. The Superior Double swaps that for a garden view and a full bath. The Family Suite is the biggest at around 40 m² with exposed beams, and Room 20 is the Beatles Suite, which is not always allocated by default, so mention it when you book.
Older than the hotel and younger than the marketing. Historic England, which lists it under entry 1182444, dates the standing five-bay block to the early nineteenth century with eighteenth-century fabric behind it, on the site of the earlier Chopping Knife Inn. It was Wyndersham House in 1848, the Avon by 1923, and took the Antrobus Arms name around 1962. Copy describing it as a seventeenth-century coaching inn overstates the case.
Other Great Stays in Southern England
Norfolk Hotel
Pick this if you would rather end the day on a beach than on Salisbury Plain. It is a listed Georgian terrace on Weymouth seafront with sea-view rooms and a lift, which the Antrobus cannot offer, about two hours south-west.
The Sailors Return
Another listed building at the budget end, but a working harbour pub rather than a coaching inn, with breakfast from half past six. Choose it if an early start matters more to you than a walled garden.
The York Hotel
A seafront alternative on the Bristol Channel if your Wiltshire dates are full. It trades the Stonehenge doorstep for a long sandy beach and a straightforward promenade hotel.
Ready to Sleep Two Miles from the Stones?
Twenty rooms in a listed coaching inn, including one with a plate on the door reading The Beatles Suite. Amesbury fills for both solstices and through the summer holidays. Check your dates now.
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