Editor Pick
Crowne Plaza St James - A Lovely Experience
- August 31, 2009
- Rated 4 of 5 by
Hishyeness from Walton-on-Thames, United Kingdom
INTRODUCTION
I booked dinner and theatre for my wife's thirtieth birthday, and needed a relatively up-market hotel in London - with a bit of "wow" factor - to overnight in. I am a frequent visitor to IC Hotel Group properties and as a member of their award-winning "Priority Club" loyalty scheme, I decided to use my accumulated points to redeem a "Reward Night" and stay for free. The hotel is on Buckingham Gate, with extensive frontage and an attractive red and white brick façade with decorative arches, reminiscent of Florentine architecture.
GETTING TO & FROM
The hotel is in the heart of Westminster. It’s a short, three minute, walk from St James’ Park Tube station on the District & Circle Lines and about five minutes walk from Victoria Mainline and Tube stations. It took us around twenty minutes by Tube to get to Leicester Square (Eastbound District Line from St James’s Park, changing for the Northbound Northern Line at Embankment) for our pre-theatre dinner in Chinatown, so it’s a convenient base for the West End with easy and quick access to points further East.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
First impressions were excellent. The hotel has an impressive entrance, replete with doorman and red carpet and the reception staff were very friendly and professional. They actually seemed pleased to see us, and we were thankfully spared the gushing obsequiousness or, conversely, the downright haughtiness that you can find in some London hotels. The interior was in very much in keeping with exterior of the property with plush and expensive looking furniture, fittings and fixtures. The only slight down side is that there is very little natural light in the foyer area, so its not really somewhere you would want to linger.
GUEST FACILITIES
As we stayed just the one night, we did not get a chance to explore all of the varied facilities, so although I cover these below, my personal comments are confined to the room, breakfast and the main bar, which we enjoyed on our return in the evening.
+ Restaurants
The hotel has three (3) restaurants on site. ‘’’Bistro 51’’’ , just off the foyer, serves British and European style café food (and doubles as the breakfast restaurant in the morning). ‘’’The Quilon Restaurant’’’ which overlooks (and in summer spills out into) the interior courtyard, is a Michelin-starred Indian restaurant specialising in southern coastal cuisine and is the sister restaurant of the more famous Bombay Brasserie. ‘’’The Bank Westminster and Zander Bar’’’ serves contemporary British food. The main bar, ‘’’The Hamptons’’’ is covered in detail below. Twenty-four hour room service is also available.
+ Gym & Spa
There is an in-house luxury spa and gym called ‘’Spa at 51’’ which has a fully equipped, state of the art gym (with personal trainers and physiotherapists available by appointment – for a fee of course), separate male/female sauna and steam room facilities, but no swimming pool. The modestly sized gym periodically runs yoga, abs and circuit classes which are all free for guests. The Spa offers a full menu of various beauty treatments and massage therapies ranging from around £25 for an express manicure, £125 for a 90 minute Traditional Thai massage, and an ultimate £285 for a four hour, all-in pampering experience.
+ Business & Events
On the business and special event side of things, there are conference and banqueting facilities for up to 250 delegates/guests with twenty-one (21) variously sized rooms available for conferences and meetings. There is also a business centre on the ground floor, providing twenty-four hour internet access, stationery, typing, photocopying, faxing, binding and PC printing services. Priority Club members get a 20% discount on the rates for these services.
OUR ROOM
Our room, on the third floor, initially seemed to take an eternity to get to (probably because as nominated Sherpa, I was carrying everything) and was eventually reached after a few twists and turns which betrayed the age of the building (i.e. converted for hotel use rather than built as one). The room itself was bright, airy and spacious and as a big bonus, it overlooked the aforementioned courtyard. Included were a twenty inch LCD TV with video on demand, a selection of luxury toiletries in the well-appointed bathroom, a fully stocked mini-bar (admittedly with eye-wateringly expensive London pricing), complementary bottles of still water, trouser press, tea making facilities with posh biscuits, iron and ironing board and room safe. The bed was very comfortable – in fact, probably the best hotel bed I have slept in - and coming from a veteran, that means something. The bathroom had separate bath and shower facilities. The shower enclosure was very generous in size with excellent water pressure. I also appreciated the extendable shaving mirror, and my wife was equally chuffed with the lighted make-up mirror.
THE HAMPTONS BAR
After a fantastic night out we hailed a cab on Shaftesbury Avenue, which took less than ten minutes to deliver us "home" (it cost around £6.00 with tip). On arrival, we settled into the main hotel bar (Hampton’s) on the ground floor, just past reception, and treated ourselves to a couple of cocktails each. These were excellently made and professionally presented (my Mojito was perfect, as was the proprietary rum cocktail – a variation on a Cuba Libré – which followed). Service was attentive without being intrusive. Staff had the knack of turning up just at the right time, without the need for us to employ the drinks menu as a hailing device. We had a lovely relaxing late evening. Prices were high as expected (four drinks came to about £35 including gratuities), but as the room itself was free, we felt able to splurge a bit. The bar has an outside area, overlooking the internal courtyard, with patio heaters to keep the chill away at night. I understand you can also take a traditional English afternoon "Cream" tea at The Hamptons between 3pm and 5:30pm daily.
OUR DISTURBED LIE-IN
After a very comfortable night’s sleep, we experienced our only real niggle – we were woken up at 7am to a consistent banging noise outside our door. It turns out the housekeeping closet was just outside our door, and a careless member of staff kept letting it slam shut behind him. A quick word sorted the problem out, and we enjoyed another couple of hours snooze – a luxury usually denied us by our four year old daughter. Thankfully she was at my mother-in-law’s for the night!
BREAKFAST
We descended for breakfast at a very civilised 9:30. Breakfast was not included in our "Reward Night" and was charged at a very princely £20 a head for the hot and cold buffet offering. Being a difficult sort, I ordered two poached eggs and skim milk for my coffee. The eggs arrived without fuss, expertly done and served on small discs of white bread. The buffet itself was well stocked with the usual gubbins – everyone from the Full English crowd to the muesli and yoghurt brigade - and points in between -appeared well catered for. We stoically resisted the temptation to try and fill our bellies to justify the cost (we were doing posh for the weekend, so that sort of crass behaviour just would not do). My only complaint (and this comes down to personal preference) was that the bacon was a little too wet and fatty for my liking, but such was the impression created by the excellent service, that I’m sure they would have frazzled it for me had I been bothered to ask.
DEPARTURE
Check-out was hassle free. Our extras (breakfast and drinks) were all we had to pay, and we were happy to do so given our very pleasant stay. Having acquired a taste for black cabs the night before, we had the doorman hail us another one for the trip back to Waterloo Station and reality. C’est la vie.
LOCAL ATTRACTIONS
I’m sure that most people will be familiar with the sights and landmarks in London and will not need reminding of them here. That said, the hotel is in comfortable walking distance of the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye & County Hall attractions, the South Bank, Horse Guards Parade, Downing Street, the Cabinet War Rooms, the Tate Modern, Buckingham Palace, the Mall and Trafalgar Square. St James’s Park and Hyde Park are close by as well.
VERDICT
We had a lovely, albeit brief, time and thoroughly enjoyed our stay. Staff were courteous, attentive and professional. The room was of an excellent standard and the facilities we used were clean an well maintained. As such, I would heartily recommend the hotel to anyone looking for a relatively high standard of overnight accommodation without breaking the bank.
© Hishyeness 2009
Great Location. Easy Access to Lots of London Must Sees.
- September 7, 2008
- Rated 5 of 5 by
a traveler from Travelocity.com
My wife & I arrived in London fabout 1:00 p.m. on Friday, August 15, 2008, for a weekend stay at the Crowne Plaza St. James, prior to departing for a British Isle cruise on the 18th. Booking through Travelocity the daily room rates were about 1/2 of what the cost was at the same hotel using the cruise line booking service.
Using Dot-To-Dot for transport from the airport to the hotel, upon arrival at the hotel ,check in went smoothly. All hotel staff were friendly/helpful. The room (though small by U.S. standards) was more than adequate for me and my wife. We had a great view of the hotel's plaza area (and the windows opened to let in air if needed; and, there was AC, if needed). The bathroom/tub/shower area was large, with plenty of towels and accessories. While we did not use the hotel's dining or bar facilities (we dined and drank elsewhere), they were nice. And the hotel's outside plaza area for dining or drinking were great. Lots of greenery/fountains/etc.
As for eating and drinking, there were a number of pubs and eating establishments within a short walking distance of the hotel. For example, the small cafe across the street from the hotel served a great "English" breakfast at a very reasonable price. And the corner pub on the right hand side down aways from Buckingham Palace served GREAT fish & chips (and ale).
The only draw back (and it is a minor one, for me) was that my wife noticed that the room cleaning staff did not replace the used glasses and coffee cups in the room. At best, they were rinsed and wiped then returned to their former location. (A minor point -- but worth noting!)
Bottom Line: GREAT location. Comfortable accomadations. Would use again!