Recommend me a London hotel/rental, please.
February 27, 2024 1:12 PM Subscribe
We'll shortly be heading to London, and we're looking for a hotel or Airbnb-type place that will give us good general access to the stuff we plan to do + the person we will be seeing. Details inside.
We want reasonable access to:
-- the person we will be visiting, who lives in in Mile End, adjacent to the Stepney Green tube station
-- the Tate Britain
-- the West End
-- general tourist stuff (though this is the least important category since it's so vague)
We plan to see the Stepney Green person multiple times during our trip, so we'd like to be able to come/go from there easily. (Or maybe you'll tell me we should just stay out there?)
So what areas or neighborhoods should we be looking at? And if you have a specific recommendation for a hotel or other type of rental, please let me know. We would be happy with a bare bones hotel room or a small unit with a kitchenette. The only thing we can't do is anything that's physically difficult to access, like with multiple flights of stairs.
We want reasonable access to:
-- the person we will be visiting, who lives in in Mile End, adjacent to the Stepney Green tube station
-- the Tate Britain
-- the West End
-- general tourist stuff (though this is the least important category since it's so vague)
We plan to see the Stepney Green person multiple times during our trip, so we'd like to be able to come/go from there easily. (Or maybe you'll tell me we should just stay out there?)
So what areas or neighborhoods should we be looking at? And if you have a specific recommendation for a hotel or other type of rental, please let me know. We would be happy with a bare bones hotel room or a small unit with a kitchenette. The only thing we can't do is anything that's physically difficult to access, like with multiple flights of stairs.
My wife and I were in London in May 2022. We stayed in three places, the first two of which are in the East End:
- Hotel Ibis Shoreditch
- Travelodge London City
- Premier Inn London Euston
The prices were similar, but I much preferred the Premier Inn, which is very close to the British Library. Queen Mary College (near Mile End tube stop) used to have summer rooms available, but I don't think they do anymore.
posted by lukemeister at 5:00 PM on February 27
- Hotel Ibis Shoreditch
- Travelodge London City
- Premier Inn London Euston
The prices were similar, but I much preferred the Premier Inn, which is very close to the British Library. Queen Mary College (near Mile End tube stop) used to have summer rooms available, but I don't think they do anymore.
posted by lukemeister at 5:00 PM on February 27
Town Hall is a nice hotel with small kitchen-equipped studios/suites in Bethnal Green - about a 20 min walk from Stepney Green. It's well off the tourist track, but pretty easy to grab an underground or overground train to central London. The hotel is quite nice for the price and the neighborhood has lots of great food options. My wife and I have stayed there several times over the years, pre- and post-pandemic.
posted by niicholas at 1:35 PM on February 28 [1 favorite]
posted by niicholas at 1:35 PM on February 28 [1 favorite]
Best answer: We ended up staying at Lehman Locke, which worked for a bunch of reasons:
-- 1/2 block from Aldgate East tube station, then only 2 stops to our friend in Stepney Green; this was the primary reason we chose this hotel
-- that adjacent tube access meant we had easy access to the whole city, basically
-- easy walking access to Shoreditch and Spitalfields
-- all the units include a small kitchen + washing machine/dryer, which was heavenly for a two-week trip
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:54 AM on May 8
-- 1/2 block from Aldgate East tube station, then only 2 stops to our friend in Stepney Green; this was the primary reason we chose this hotel
-- that adjacent tube access meant we had easy access to the whole city, basically
-- easy walking access to Shoreditch and Spitalfields
-- all the units include a small kitchen + washing machine/dryer, which was heavenly for a two-week trip
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:54 AM on May 8
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If you want to maximize tourism ability, I'd probably aim to stay in Westminster, maybe at St. Ermin's which is nice and historic and not insanely priced for London (last I checked), or the Conrad St. James if I'm feeling spendy. That area is a direct tube ride on the District line from St. James's Park or Westminster to Stepney Green, walking distance to the Tate Britain, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Churchill War Rooms, etc, direct tube to the Tower of London, and one change from the West End. Plus, because it's close to a bunch of government and other offices, it's quieter at night than staying in SoHo or somewhere like that. If I were younger and hipper, I'd also consider Shoreditch, which is closer to Stepney Green.
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 2:24 PM on February 27 [1 favorite]