This place must be one of Kathmandu's definitive accommodation experiences. It's like a virtual tour of the hippie days. Century Lodge was built for the hippies of the 1970s and I swear you can still hear some of them late at night if you stay here.
We had a large double room with its own bathroom and gold foil door for 300Rp. I still don't know what the gold foil was for, but it looked kind of cool. There was a poster of Jim Morrison on one wall and the ornately carved teak windows opened on to a view of the central paved courtyard, littered with a few tables and chairs and the owner's pet doves. Smaller singles and doubles without a bathroom cost less - around 150Rp.
The reception area is lined with padded bench seats and a couple of bookcases crammed with travel books from all over the world in many different languages. You're free to browse and borrow and it's a popular place to hook up with other travellers keen to go trekking.
They also had the most gorgeous lhasa-apso when we were there. Her name was Lucky and she was suffering from quite bad cataracts then, so I don't know if she's still there. She slept with us a couple of nights and greeted every passing visitor with enthusiasm.
This is a budget place with a real (deserved) reputation - it's run down but it's clean, and the atmosphere is thick with history.
Schedule your ablutions for the afternoon - you'll have the best chance of (solar) hot water if the sun shines.
To find it head down Freak Street from Basantapur Square and it's on your left only about 200 metres along.