London is a rather sprawling city. It has continued to grow to incorporate smaller villages and towns ever since the Earl of Southampton built on rural Bloomsbury in 1660 and the Metropolis Management Act incorporated the Parish of St Giles in 1855. Nowadays Bloomsbury is just one tube stop from Covent Garden and Theatreland!
Nowadays it has grown out the M25 in some places and a hotel “in London” may not be as handy as you might think.
So if you are planning to come to London to see a show (just as 14 million visitors did in 2012) and you are planning to stay the night, you might want to think about what the right choice of hotel might do for the amount of to-ing and fro-ing you will have to do.
Of course, as I mentioned earlier, London’s Underground system will get you around quite nicely, so anywhere within Zone 1 will mean that your theatre is no more than 30 minutes from your hotel, (not including walking time). But if you want to make sure that walking is all you need to do then a hotel actually in Theatreland will save valuable time on a theatre break to London.
Three Star Hotels
So straight away we have a problem. For a hotel to maximise its profits in London it is quite helpful for it to achieve as high a star rating as possible. So you will find hardly any 2 star hotels actually in Theatreland. A three star is as low as you will get and to be honest, if you are coming to London on a theatre break you are probably celebrating a special occasion so a 3 star is the last you should be selling out for.
Having said that the Travelodge Covent Garden on Drury Lane is very central and very cheap and very 2 star, “but you pays for what you gets” and if you are just after a place to rest your head within a minute of the nearest theatres (which happens to be The New London Theatre showing Warhorse and the Shaftesbury Theatre which will play host to The Pajama Game this summer) then it is perfect.
But back to the three star hotels.
There are two of note:
- The Strand Palace Hotel on The Strand and just yards from the Lyceum (The Lion King). The Adelphi (The Bodyguard) and the Novello (Mamma Mia!)
- St Giles Hotel just behind the Dominion Theatre currently hosting We Will Rock You
The Strand Palace is the slightly nicer of the two but the St Giles has excellent facilities including a super 25 metre pool and 2 floors of gym and health club facilities.
They are also probably the only two 3 star hotels you will need as the St Giles is on the north edge of Theatreland and the Strand Palace is on the south edge meaning that one of them is no more than 20 minutes walk from every theatre in Theatreland.
Four Star Hotels
In this category are some of my very favourite hotels. You can’t mention Theatreland hotels without mentioning the Radisson Blu Edward group who own some excellent four stars hotels dotted around Theatreland and a couple just outside too. If the price is acceptable then you will be happy with the quality of these traditional London hotels.
There are also two good Thistle Hotels, the Trafalgar Square and the Piccadilly and their sister hotel the Guoman Charing Cross – perfect if you are coming into town via Charing Cross Station.
My favourite is the Kingsway Hall. Just along from Covent Garden it is very close for the theatre on the Aldwych and the Strand and the Royal Opera House. It used to be an old cinema and it has a cover front driveway so your taxi can pull up protected from the elements and a doorman will come and help you disembark.
Talking of well dressed flunkies welcoming you at the door, special mention also has to go to the Rubens Hotel. It is not in Theatreland but in Victoria but it gets a mention because Victoria is home to two superb productions at the moment: Billy Elliot at the Victoria Palace and Wicked at the Apollo Victoria and so we have to mention their nearby hotel. And don’t just take my word for it. The good folk at TripAdvisor regularly vote it and its sister hotel, 41, into the very top of the TripAdvisor charts.
Five Star Hotels
The Waldorf, the Savoy, the Le Meridien, The Ritz Oh my gosh! There are five star hotels and then there are five star hotels! If your pocket is deep enough and your celebration worthy enough then nothing should stop you booking one of these hotels… at least once in your life.
There are other 5 star hotels but often they are not much better than some of the 4 star hotels above. The Radisson Blu Edwardian can offer the Hampshire but it is not that much better than the Mercer Street. The Guoman Royal Horseguards is not that much better than the Charing Cross. I mean they are better, but for one night, when most of the time is going to be spent out and about? Are they really worth the extra money? Whereas The Savoy or the Waldorf: now they are an experience all on their own. And the Ritz? Ahh the teas, the decor, the cocktails with flecks of gold, the casino in the basement, the bed linen, the flunkies…
Conclusion
The perfect hotel to accompany a show is one that is nearby, comfortable, welcoming and not that expensive.
Like with a pre-theatre meal, where you shouldn’t make the food so extravagant that you do not want to leave the restaurant for the theatre, your hotel should make you happy to be there, not sad to leave.
Having said that, if there were only three hotels in London’s West End I would want them to be the St Giles, the Kingsway Hall and The Ritz, because I’m not sure I’d like a world without The Ritz.
Author Simon Harding has been organising culturally-led short breaks, including Theatre Breaks, around the UK and Europe for over 30 years. He also writes for www.theatrebreaks.co.uk
1 Comment
dan chadders
Has anyone been to the Savoy since it was refurbished?
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