I always think it’s...
...difficult to choose a hotel, particularly when visiting London. If you’re not familiar with the city, you want somewhere central, but if you’re visiting to do the main sights, there often isn’t much in the way of evening entertainment around tourist hotels. On this trip, Pete and I were visiting with the specific intention of discovering some of the less touristy areas of London and for the first time in a long time, I didn’t set foot near Oxford Street during the whole trip. I also always look for hotels that look great, design is important to me both at home and away, but it’s always difficult to reconcile the price tag you often get with that standard of hotel when you’re going to spend limited time in the room.
On that basis, The Hoxton hotel was perfect for us. Only 2 stops on the tube from Euston and then a 5 minute walk away, we arrived on Friday night to the buzzing bar atmosphere, keen to start the weekend as we intended to go on. We made a table reservation and then headed up to the room.
The Hoxton is quite industrial in feel with the corridors having cool neon lighting and metal edged walls. Rooms are small but well proportioned, still fitting in a chaise lounge and desk (dressing table to me,) with plenty of room for getting ready even with two of us. Our room had a large rain shower and plenty of sink space – The Hoxton‘s marketing blurb is resolutely no-nonsense and straight talking, with lots of sensible solutions to make your stay more comfortable. The soap is a whole bar of pears that you are encouraged to take home and instead of a seldom touched mini bar, the fridge holds 2 complimentary bottles of mineral water and some fresh milk for your morning coffee tray.
My favourite thing? Designed by the founder of the Pret a Manger food chain, your breakfast is a Pret lite bag, with yogurt pot, banana and fresh orange juice. For me, that translates to a hotel stay with breakfast in bed. I prefer to eat as soon as I wake up and hate getting ready to go down for breakfast. I end up getting so hungry I’m either grumpy when I get there or go down half ready, a sight for sore eyes. We had coffee in bed and woke up in a leisurely fashion, chomping through the bits on offer whilst planning our day out.
After we checked out the room, I did a quick change and went for dinner in the Hoxton Grill. We had so many recommendations of places to eat but reserved them for a future trip because the Hoxton Grill is pretty special. There’s a retro American feel to the open restaurant and bar which adjoins the lobby, with large stone fireplaces, lots of exposed brickwork and leather banquettes alongside salvage style chairs and tables. The menu lists lots of American style classics too. Pete opted for the ribs after we shared lamb meatball sliders and I had sea bass while we worked our way through the cocktail list. Pete’s summed the atmosphere up nicely, saying he felt like ‘we should be paying in dollars‘.