Help Wanted
January 19th, 2005 - 7:34 pm
Hey, anyone care to recommend a nice bed & breakfast in London?
We don’t (yet) have a preference for any particular part of town, just a nice B&B with decent Tube access.
UPDATE: Got so caught up searching for places to stay – thanks in no small part because of some fine suggestions – that I forgot all about blogging tonight. Anyway, it’s midnight, so I’m going to take my book and go to bed.
I don’t know if you’ve ever been, but instead of staying in a cramped, expensive hotel in the city, I would recommend finding a corporate apartment rental. After a native friend recommended this, my husband’s company did this for him when he was there on business, and he loved it. He had his own kitchen (he doesn’t like eating breakfast out, so this was good for him.) and there was room to maneuver. London rooms are dinky. I’d send you to the place he stayed, but it’s no longer operating. There’s also an added bonus in that while you have to pay VAT, I believe VAT is still at a lower rate than the hotel tax. (Don’t quote me on that.) And you might be able to get a portion of the VAT refunded.
I did a quick Google search for corporate apartments london and boatloads came up. Good luck and I’m really jealous! I adore that town.
I would take Kathy’s advice one step further and stay out of London (if you can) and go to some place like The Cotswolds. There’s a neat little town my wife and I stayed at called “Woodstock” that is home to Blenheim Castle (birthplace of Winston Churchill). We stayed at an inn there called “The Bear.” It’s several hundred years old and the rooms are a little cramped, but it was very nice.
Wherever you stay, please keep an eye out for werewolves.
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When are you going to London? I’m leaving this weekend and will be there for two weeks (75% business, 25% pleasure).
Richmond Inn @Richmond Upon Thames. Not “technically” a bed a breakfast, its more like a “faulty towers” kind of place, one person elevators, only half the rooms have their own bathoorms, that sort of thing… built in 1775 so nothing quite fits the modern frame, but it has a great pub, so who cares. It is across the street from one of pete townsends homes and he has been know to frequent the pub. It sits up the hill from wimbeldon and richmond park Its also nearby Kew gardens,which are very cool. the train station is walking distance, as well as the tube.
“mind the gap”…
I highly recommend the Knightsbridge hotel or any hotel in the Firmdale chain. They’re wonderful boutique hotels.
Sorry…URL
http://www.firmdale.com/index.html
Staying in the Cotswolds during a trip to London is very much like staying at Niagara Falls during a trip to New York.
I did alright at the Waverley House Hotel, located in Bloomsbury. Not a B&B but a small hotel with free English breakfast in their bright and clean restaurant. Two blocks from the Russell Square tube, three blocks from the British Museum, stumbling distance from a perfect pub just around the corner (forget the name of it. Crown and Tank? Rose and Blanche? Horse and Hoof? not sure who names these places). Inexpensive by London standards. I traveled solo, took the cheapest single room which was smallish but just fine, private bath; you might want to upgrade with two of youz.
http://www.activehotels.com/hotels/index.php3?hotelid=121440&trkref=THE
http://www.activehotels.com/
hotels/index.php3?hotelid=
121440&trkref=THE
Knightsbridge Hotel all the way. Hyde Park is across the street, Harrod’s is a block away. Easy walking to some amazing restaurants, and next to major Underground and bus lines. I go to London on business several times a year and the stay here is always pleasant, and one of the least expensive parts of the trip. Power showers as well!
I’ve had good experiences booking expensive small London hotels (e.g., Capital) at the last minute and with significant discounts using this website:
http://www.lastminute.com/site/
Hotels near Harrod’s are convenient because you can come in from Heathrow on the Picadilly tube line and that area is close to sights, shopping, etc.
I don’t know about Bed and Breakfast but there are some very good pubs on Northington Street in London.
As I think you know, I work for a British company that sends me to London every six months on a tight budget. My advice: unless you’re dead set on a Bed and Breakfast, try http://www.londontown.com. My office just found it this year, and now we’re all using it. They have ridiculously fantastic deals on hotels; I stayed at the Millenium on Gloucester Road for the same 90 quid it had cost me the previous trip to stay in a ratty B&B with carpet, I kid you not, in the bathroom. If you really don’t want to stay in a hotel, I second the other commenters: sublet a flat, or get a corporate apartment. Moderate London hotels, even B&Bs, are not what Americans are used to.
If you’re going to be in London in the spring, please let me know; I’ll be there for work for an extended stay.
I found smallandeleganthotels.com a good resource for London accomodations. Not the cheapest, but some nice options. I’ve also stayed at the cheapest (a B&B near Paddington) and after that was willing to pay a little bit more to get a hotel room I could turn around in without banging my shins.
My wife and I stayed at Aster House on our honey moon last summer. Close to Tube stop, Harrods, and there’s a great French restaurant at the end of the block.
http://www.asterhouse.com/asterhouse/
I was in town a few months ago and stayed in the Millenium Gloucester in Kensington. Nice hotel, decent bar(I figured that might be important to you), pretty quiet area and 3 minute walk to Tube. I’ll stay there again.
Another small but lovely hotel is the Montague on the Gardens, just around the corner from the British Museum, close to the Holborn tube station. Very attentive staff, small but cozy rooms, not expensive by London standards. http://www.montaguehotel.com
Another small but lovely hotel is the Montague on the Gardens, just around the corner from the British Museum, close to the Holborn tube station. Very attentive staff, small but cozy rooms, not expensive by London standards. http://www.montaguehotel.com
For years we have stayed at the Scala house when we go to London for our annual vacation. For the price of a nice B&B in a good location or an average “American style” hotel room you can rent a 2 bedroom 1.5 bath fully furnished flat in an excellent location. it has a full kitchen, washer/dryer living room with cable tv etc. with a nice view especially if you get a flat on the east side of the building.
This beats ANY other accomodation set up because at the end of the day you feel like you are at “home” not in a hotel or in “someone elses home”.
http://www.scala-house.co.uk/
Forgot to add that Scala House is located right off Tottenham Court Road on the site of the old Scala Opera House and about 100 meters from the Goodge Street tube station. It is easy walking distance from Oxford Street, British Museum, Charing Cross Road bookstors such as Foyles. It is also within walking distance of Leicester Square (unless Mrs. Vodkapundit is in heels). There is a Tescos about 2 blocks away and right across the street for it is a great little Irish Pub. The proprietors can arrange to have you picked up at either Heathrow or Gatwick and all in all quite wonderful people. All in all I can not recommend them highly enough!!!
I love http://www.priceline.com and http://www.lastminute.com for hotels. Unless a B&B is your preference, find out the price of the one in the area you’d like and then try a priceline bid for about that for a 4 star in the same region. Lastminute.com is British and had great deals on hotels in Scotland when I was last there. I assume they’d have a lot for London too.
For a couple of years, I had to lay over in London repeatedly and often. I absolutely love the Dorset Square. It’s not really a B&B, I guess, but it’s very charming and pleasant. It was just under the DoS per diem rate, probably over with current exchange rates, not cheap but nowhere in London is cheap and lots of places to stay that cost more are pretty cruddy. It’s a nice place and took a lot of the sting out of the horrendous travel schedule I had dumped on me at work at the time.
I live in London and use lastminute.com for theatre and restaurant reservations. The deals are particularly good this time of year. Their hotel deals are excellent as well, though I don’t use them.
If you are really committed to the B&B idea there is the Sawday series of B&B guides, including one specific to London. I found their France guide very useful on a trip a few years ago. Note that their B&B offerings tend to be well out of the center.
I live in London and use lastminute.com for theatre and restaurant reservations. The deals are particularly good this time of year. Their hotel deals are excellent as well, though I don’t use them.
If you are really committed to the B&B idea there is the Sawday series of B&B guides, including one specific to London. I found their France guide very useful on a trip a few years ago. Note that their B&B offerings tend to be well out of the center.
If you’re still looking for a B&B in London (a cheap one?); I’ve stayed several times at the Westpoint Hotel (just off of Hyde Park and one block from the Paddington Tube stop). There are also a number of good restaurants nearby.
If you’re driving in, they have a car-park that’s about half the price of the NCP car parks, so that can save you some