The Strand Palace
 

Altho I stay at The Strand Palace 30 years ago (great location!) wondering if the pics on their web site are "for real" and represent the typical rooms.....or is there one remodeled Standard and one remodeled Club room, and those are the two pics on their web site?

Any recent experiences?

Only from about 3 years ago. It was my hotel of last resort for London - if my agency couldn't get me in to any of my favourites or I was only staying one night, I'd stay there. The standard sized room looks about twice the size of any I ever got. It certainly didn't look like that. Despite many requests for a quiet room, I invariably ended up next to fire doors, which hoards of American teenagers (sorry!) would bang through all night, talking in the loud American teenager manner (what would be considered shouting over here - sorry - I get grumpy with lack of sleep, and the large amount of grumpiness due to those kids, I still remember :mad: ). No air con in the rooms. Maid service invariably ignored the 'do not disturb' sign on the door and insisted on trying to clean your room at 0800. When I was still in bed, usually hungover and very grumpy ;) I think on my final stays, I took to barricading the door with my luggage!

Bad, bad queues for breakfast - but actually if you could get in, it wasn't too bad. Good reception staff and a very handy location - but no tube stop particularly near.

In fairness though, it was still on my 'would stay there if desperate' list despite the drawbacks. For me the biggest one was the noise - I always went there hoping I'd get a room not by fire doors - and it never happened :( If it wasn't for that, it would have been ok. But there are some I stayed in which I wouldn't have stayed in again, no matter how desperate (a certain Best Western in Pimlico for example).

I stayed there last August for two separate stays, and while I certainly didn't get the showpiece "standard room" they show on the website, I didn't find it horrible. Yes, the rooms are very small (in fact, the two rooms I got must have been "small" and "tiny"), but I didn't have any of the other problems that Jenbel mentioned. No problems with noise (admittedly, I wasn't near the fire doors in either case--I could easily see how that could be quite loud) or early maids, never a line for breakfast at all, actually.

For what I needed, which essentially was just a place to sleep after playing tourist all day, it worked fine.

It's a 1930s building in an excellent location with good value for money. The rooms are small, OK. They are 1930s standard sized, then with the bathroom nowadays cut out of them (in the 1930s en-suite bathrooms were rare). It's kept in good condition.

They must be the same American teenagers who recently were standing side-by-side on an Underground escalator who, in response to my "excuse me", said "huh, just wait till the end". Their teacher/lecturer with them then said that in Britain you don't stand on the left, and got the same response.

In regards to the hoards of teens...was this summer/school break time? We'll be there 3rd week of Oct, and just can;t find anything reasonable in a good location.

It happened on a few occasions. One was summer definitely. Generally, in the quieter seasons I could find a reasonably priced HI and would stay there instead so I suspect there would be a spring/summer/early autumn bias.

If you are struggling, I would take it. As I said it was somewhere I would stay if I had exhausted other possibilities. If you do get a noisy room, you can always asked to be moved if staying more than one night - for one night, it was never worth the hassle.

You seem to know the area/location well!@:-)

I am able to get a superior club single for GBP77 including tax and full breakfast and a superior club double for GBP137 including tax and full breakfast. Is that reasonable for that time of year and in that area?

Maybe I am making too much concern about the location? I want my friends to be "in the middle of things" being able to walk and see a bit. I've been at the Strand Palace and the Savoy. Anything past Mayfair to the West seems too far to walk (I've stayed as far out as the Mayfair on Stanton) and to the East the Strand Palace. Or, can a reasonable person (and ambitious tourist) walk into the The City from Knightsbridge?

It's funny.....we all have priorities for our money. But I am almost choking when I figure out that the full cost of a 3-week vacation in Scotland/England is going to cost, and I am making decisions for other, too! :eek:

I think your friends should be fine with the Strand Palace. In comparison to the £77, a cheapo Travel Inn room (think Motel 6) in nowhere outer-East London suburbs is over £50 a night. For first timers the location of the Strand Palace can't be beaten. Covent Garden is directly behind it, the Thames is in front, Trafalgar Square to your right, theatres up and down the same street.

It's about 5 minutes to walk from the Strand Palace to Charing Cross Underground station, and a huge array of buses pass the front door.

No you would not be likely to walk from Knightsbridge to the City.

I think WHBM might be showing his age. On a tube map, look for Charing Cross underground station...

That's a good rate. The price for a double is a tad on the high side (but is presumably not for the lowest grade of room?) but presume you'd share that. HI Bloomsbury is coming in at about £140/night for a double for the same period, and that's one of my standby hotels (located close to Russell Square and Russell Square tube). I do think slightly more important then location is how close to good tube connections. You'll have to use tubes at some point, so ending the day with a short stagger between tube and hotel is always a plus.

However, I do doubt that you will find much better than that (short of pricelining, always a risk) for the standard of hotel you are getting for the strand. To get much cheaper, you'd have to drop a class - been there, done that, don't recommend it.

Oh well spotted Wingo old chap, what a klutz I am ! The Underground station names round Charing Cross used to be completely different. They were all changed round in 1977. I should know, I've done magazine articles on it.

Incidentally the abandoned Jubilee Line route from Green Park into Charing Cross extends by some substantial train storage tunnels east under the Strand right to the Strand Palace hotel. There is an emergency surface access point visible from the front door of the hotel.

And if we are speaking about showing my age, I once had a great evening in the Strand Palace in the early 1980s (before I lived in London, I was down from Manchester) when I met a couple of FA's from a short-lived US DC-8 charter airline called Arista, who had been put up there. Anyone remember Arista ? I certainly do :) :) :)

Would I be correct to assume that when you think of The Strand Palace hotel, the first thing that comes to mind is NOT the name of the airline! ;)

Thanks for all the help, folks!

Cheers!