Hilton London Paddington hotel
146 Praed Street, London, United Kingdom W2 1EE
Tel: 44-207-850-0500 Fax: 44-207-850-0600
e-mail: [email protected]

Hilton HHonors Reward Category: 6 (40,000 points per night or 140,000 points for four nights using an AXON6 award)

Parking: Self-parking, £31.00 per 24 hours.

My rate (February 21) was £84.50 + £12.68 taxes, including breakfast, in the January Sale, USD $138 nonrefundable, decent for London, and very much so for the room I was assigned with breakfast. (I started this threads because 1) Search only revealed threads that were comparisons between this property and another, and 2) Search did not reveal any sensu stricto trip report and review thread for this property.)

Restaurants: The Brasserie for all three meals, and the Steam Bar for lunch and dinner (light meals are available as well as in the lobby adjacent to the Brasserie, and in the Executive Lounge as well.) Full in room dining is available.

Location is the name of the game here, as the hotel is adjacent to Paddington railroad station. Heathrow Express: £16.50 single, £32.00 return, every quarter hour, fifteen minutes to LHR Central (Terminals 1, 2 and 3,) 5 more to T-5, change to T-4; Heathrow Connect, £6.90 single, £13.80 return, every half hour to Healthrow Central, taking 25 minutes. To access the hotel use the escalator across from platrofms 6 and 7. Also here are the Great Western Railway (e.g. train to Bath,) as well as Circle, District, Bakerloo, Hammersmith & City Undergound lines and numerous busses. Taxi quoted £50 - £90 one way, beware of "gypsy" pirate taxi cabs.

The neighborhood is so-so, the Bayswater. Nearest site of consequence is St. Mary's Hospital, which has an excellent heart attack care centre, and houses Sir Alexander Fleming's laboratory (museum), open weekday mornings, where he is credited with the discovery of a new medicine - an antibiotic derived from the Penicillium mold, called "penicillin."

Not any spectacular sites here, some ordinary restaurants and pubs, a pub or two and fast food restaurants within the station - but a nice walk can be had around the canals of "Little Venice," a nice neighborhood with some interesting houseboats. If you enjoy walking, Paddington is not far from other sites, notably Edgeware Road, Kensington Gardens and Palace, Hyde Park and even Buckingham Palace.

(And don't forget in the station itself, the bronze statue of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, whose vision included the Great Western Railway and steamship line, as well as the hotel, as well as a bronze of a forlorn Paddington Bear and his battered case waiting for somene to take care of him - visible from the Hilton Executive Lounge. Beware taking photos in the station - even of Brunel or Paddington Bear - can bring some nastiness from railroad station staff.)

The hotel itself is a historic building, and has a casino. The decor is in an Art Deco refurbishment redolent of the Great Western, with lots of inlaid woods - very attractive in my mind, but some may not like it. The rooms range from larger (for London) to suites, with marble baths and Art Deco motfis throughout. Some rooms look out on Praed St. and Eastbourne Terrace and can be quite noisy, given the seem to not have double-glazed windows.

The newish Executive Lounge is adjacent to the lobby, easy to find if you access the hotel from Paddington station, and an easy place to check in or out if you have status. I have had better service here than from the main desk - this hotel seems to be another "gut" where the desk personnel are always new, always from elsewhere, and often as knowledgeable about Hilton HHonors as a turnip.

The lounge feels spacious, but apparently can fill up at times. Breakfast is served as of 0700 and hot hors d'oeuvres and canapés, with alcoholic drinks, between 1830 and 2030 / 6:30 - 8:30 PM.) Tea is served (cakes etc. with a self-service cappuccino machine and teas) immediately prior to canapés. The variety of hors d'oeuvres seems quite good, and breakfast is also substantial, including scrambled eggs, blo, er, sausages, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms, breads, cereals, fruits, juices, etc.

I arrived via "tube" from a day at the museums in South Kensington, in turn visited by Underground directly from Heathrow. I was greeted warmly and given room 522, a spacious king room with light Deco wood tones throughout highlighted by some greens and cinnamon, a spacious marble bath with the usual Crabtree and Evelyn amenities, bath sheets, bathrobe and slippers. The closet held a safe, luggage jack, ironing set and more pillows and blanket.

In the room I found a courtesy plate with some fruits and bonbons, as well as two bottles each of sparkling and still Malvern water. The room itself held a desk and task chair with HSIA £15.00 per 24 hors iirc, telephone (even the 0800 toll free calls are a completely outrageous £4.00 to connect and £4.00 per additional minute!) an expensive minibar with a small bit of room for your own goods, armchair, plenty of light, bed with an impressive Deco headboard (but platform style with a thin mattress some might not like,) very warm duvet (central air conditioning means you can not really cool the room in winter, unless you open a window.) A television and Hilton (Timex) clock complete the picture - the room is comfortable an attractive, but this room can be loud as it is near the corner of Praed and Eastbourne.

Would I stay again? Sure! Though the answer is tempered with a caveat that price and other properties can easily affect my decision. For an overnight Heathrow flight connection, using rail and htis hotel will often beat the London Heathrow Hilton...

BTW, some links for very economical London / area walking sightseeing, most easy to get to from Paddington:



London Explorers Group, Dr. Andrew Andy Duncan, a historian who leads four walks a month.

The London Walks, 10 - 20 walks per day £7.00 in London. Most leaders have drama backgrounds. They also lead all-day Explorer Days at £12.00 plus train cost (places like Cambridge, Bath, Stonehenge, etc.) which include a morning walk, time for lunch on your own and an afternoon walk. Meet at announced place, use rail to / from.

The Ramblers: Day trips from London, led by volunteers, about 50 rambles per week offered. Car-free, select "local groups" to select walks, and show up.

(Courtesy of Carrie Gillespie, Kew, London, in letter to International Travel News.)