Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • Bristol – Hampton by Hilton

    Bristol – Hampton by Hilton

    Hotels.com have since informed me that the hotel has withdrawn the refund option. Will repost about this….

    The third in my series of hotels that I never got to stay at due to the coronavirus….. But, I like to post about positive experiences and this hotel refunded my non-refundable booking that I had made via hotels.com. This is particularly positive as I hadn’t yet contacted this hotel, so it was an entirely pro-active refund. I will try to ensure that I visit the hotel in the future, they’ve made this process entirely painless.

    Reassuringly professional.

  • Lincoln – Premier Inn Lincoln City Centre

    Lincoln – Premier Inn Lincoln City Centre

    I posted about how helpful Ibis Bristol Temple Meads were with regards to cancelling a future hotel booking which was now impossible due to the Coronavirus. So, I should mention positively the efficiency of Premier Inn Lincoln City Centre who did the same with my otherwise non-refundable booking. Premier Inn only postponed stays initially, but then they allowed a cancellation of everything and my money was refunded swiftly. Hopefully I’ll get back to Lincoln soon.

    It gives me lots of reassurance in the professionalism of Ibis and Premier Inn.

  • Chesterfield – Chesterfield Museum and Art Gallery

    Chesterfield – Chesterfield Museum and Art Gallery

    This charming museum and art gallery in Chesterfield is free of charge and I was fortunate that I had time to visit as it’s opening hours are a little limited and they only just overlapped with when I was in the town.

    One of the main rooms of the museum, which was formerly the town’s library until a new building was constructed in the 1980s.

    There are some books for sale here, but what’s more exciting is that this is an original cart from when the building was used as a library. Yes, I found this exciting. Sorry.

    This is a longcase clock which was given to Chesterfield Council by Mrs A Hadfield, who slightly complexly was the mother of Councillor Hadfield and the donation was in honour of her late husband Walter. A member of the museum staff notes on their web-site that this is the loudest of all the exhibits they have, as well as being just a little erratic in terms of its time-keeping.

    Apparently this is a ground paddle and is a mechanism which is located next to the top gate of a lock. It is from Chesterfield Canal and it allowed boaters (or whatever they’re called) to fill the lock with water.

    Something quite unique, these are glass tubes owned by George Stephenson, the Father of the Railways. Their function was for cucumbers to grow straight, a simple little piece of technology.

    These are from the local packaging company, Robinsons, who are still trading today and who made all of the Smarties tubes, amongst many other things.

    This is the largest item in the museum’s collection and one which has some heritage. It’s from the Church of St Mary and All Saints over the road, which is also known as the Crooked Spire. It’s a windlass which was used during the church’s construction to lift heavy weights and people would have had to walk within in to get the wheel to turn. This was left in the church tower for many centuries and it was only removed in 1947 when they needed to make space to fit a new set of bells.

    I hadn’t realised this, but the information board by these coins mentions that in the late sixteenth century the country started to run out of currency. So, local traders produced their own coins, or trade tokens, including the town’s Angel Inn.

    All in all, a rather lovely museum and the staff there were welcoming and keen to engage. I also thought that it was a particularly well curated museum, as sometimes provincial museums can focus on a few topics which have no relation to each other, whereas here there was a complete history of the town with few obvious gaps other than perhaps their coverage of the World Wars. I fear that these sort of museums are very vulnerable to budget cuts, but hopefully it will continue for many more years to come.

  • Bristol – Ibis Bristol Temple Meads

    Bristol – Ibis Bristol Temple Meads

    I can’t write much about this hotel, as this was a cancelled stay due to the Coronavirus. But, I wanted to note how helpful the hotel was in what must be trying circumstances for them. I paid for this booking, which was for the two days after the now cancelled Rambers General Council, primarily through loyalty points and the helpful hotel staff member wanted to check with Accor that I could get the points back if they processed the cancellation. They confirmed I could and I have within just a couple of hours got them back in my account.

    Swift, efficient and polite – an impressive response time from Accor.

  • London – Ibis Budget London City Airport

    London – Ibis Budget London City Airport

    I stayed at this hotel near to London City airport following my flight back with British Airways from Florence. For a time it looked like my flight would be cancelled, or at best, it would have arrived too late to land at London City and so would have been diverted to Southend Airport. I sent the hotel an e-mail asking if I could check-in late and they responded quickly saying that they’d do the check-in there and then on-line, so I could just pick up my keycard which they had put under the desk for the night porter. All very professional.

    I got there in good time in the end, thanks to British Airways, and the receptionist was the friendly and helpful staff member who had sent the e-mail to me. This is a relatively cheap hotel, but the welcome seemed authentic and I was pleased with the bargain price of £33 including breakfast. It’s only an eleven-minute walk from London City Airport, so convenient for these late arriving flights.

    The room was clean and to brand standard, perfectly sufficient for a one-night stay.

    I went down to breakfast and I was the only one there, so at least it was peaceful. There were cereals, pastries, yoghurts and a selection of meats. This was sufficient before my train journey back to Norwich, with the orange juice and coffee being helpful as well, particularly the coffee for that little energy burst. When I checked-out at around 09:00 the breakfast area had around thirty people in, so it was either a coach party or perhaps a flight load of passengers who were on one of the cancelled flights from the previous day from London City airport. I imagine that the breakfast experience for them wasn’t quite as relaxed as mine was.

    Anyway, I thought I’d have a little look at TripAdvisor to see what people thought about this 81-room hotel and the reviews are quite reasonable. I mentioned above that I walked this in eleven minutes, but some reviews complained it was a long walk, people managed to take 15, 20 and 35 minutes. I don’t know what the one taking 35 minutes was doing.

    One person didn’t like their toilet and must have been told to use the one on the ground floor, which isn’t ideal, although certainly isn’t illegal. I don’t like the comparison with easyHotel, which is one of the few hotel chains that I hold in entire contempt. Which might be unfair since I’ve never stayed with them….

    “Im sure prisoner’s get better service better breakfast. Rooms more then basic think easyhotel – class customer service. First room toilet didnt work fully booked normaly by law a hotel would have to reacomerdate u somewhere else at there cost. Not here so no toilet facility apart from going down three floors in lift.”

    Another guest was pleased:

    “One member of staff in particular was aggressive and combative”.

    I never manage to find aggressive staff in hotels (well, bar that one in Los Angeles a few years ago, which I must write about at some point), but it’d certainly liven the check-in experience up.

    “In my 36 years alive on this earth, this hotel has to be in the top 3 worst stays ever, in fact i would have rather have slept in my car and woke up and jumped in the Thames had i known it was that bad.”

    Hmmm, sounds like they didn’t find this their perfect stay….

    Another guest complained that the place was “full of builders” and there are lots of problems with noise, which I can imagine must be a problem at weekends. Having lived near to this hotel a few years ago, the area isn’t the most salubrious, but I thought that the staff did well to manage everything. To be honest, I was just pleased to be able to get back to London before the curfew at City Airport and get to the hotel.

  • Chesterfield – Church of St Mary and All Saints (The Crooked Spire)

    Chesterfield – Church of St Mary and All Saints (The Crooked Spire)

    For reasons I haven’t yet worked out, the cover image on these blog pages is automatically cropped, but I’m dealing with that.

    For this post, it kind of makes sense to have the whole photo, so here’s the church including its twisted spire. There’s a local poem about this church which is:

    “Whichever way you turn your eye,

    It always seems to be awry.

    Pray can you tell the reason why?

    The only reason known of weight,

    Is that the thing was never straight”.

    The church is also known as the Crooked Spire church, for reasons which are self-evident. The problem occurred when the spire was being built as there was a shortage of trained men due to the Black Death, and a mistake was made by using unseasoned wood and also too much lead. The spire twisted over the centuries, which isn’t entirely uncommon in churches from this period, and it was nearly taken down in the early nineteenth century. Wiser heads prevailed and the church is today one of the most infamous in the area because of its quirky spire.

    There also can’t be many football teams who have their nickname derived from the local church, but Chesterfield FC do, they are often called the Spireites. They were offering tours of the church tower until relatively recently, but it has been decided that it is currently unsafe to do so.

    I don’t like grave stones being reused in this manner, they’re losing their relevance like this and slowly being destroyed. This is inside the church’s porch.

    Looking towards the altar of the thirteenth century medieval church, which was comprehensively restored (or mauled about, depending on your view of Victorian architects) by George Gilbert Scott in 1843.

    Looking back towards the west end of the church which mostly dates to the period of Henry VII, they’ve built a shop area at the back (the shop is recent, that wasn’t a Tudor installation….).

    The intricately carved pulpit dates back to 1620. A large fire in the church started near to this pulpit in 1961, but although this fine wooden structure survived, the church’s grand old Snetzler organ was destroyed.

    The Foljambe family tombs in the Lady Chapel.

    The stained glass in St. Catherine’s Chapel.

  • Chesterfield – Ibis Chesterfield Centre

    Chesterfield – Ibis Chesterfield Centre

    Another one of my bookings from the Accor Black Friday sale in December, this was my stay in Chesterfield for three days in mid-March 2020.

    This is another Ibis which is struggling, indeed quite badly, on TripAdvisor and is rated as one of the worst hotels in the town. My room was sufficiently clean though, although the whole hotel is clearly in need of some modernisation and renovation.

    I had three days to enjoy this beautiful view. Being slightly abnormal, I do like the background noise of traffic though, so all is well. Although, on this point, some bloody idiot in the planning department has allowed this hotel to be built without a pedestrian crossing to the town centre, which is a three-minute walk away. This means that guests of the hotel have to try and cross a busy road and are reliant on cars slowing down to let them across. I can’t recall in all the hotels that I’ve visited in the UK such a dangerous situation and is perhaps a reminder to town planners that pedestrians do need to cross roads….

    A well stocked drinks tray, with the addition of chocolates being unusual.

    These were the sugars provided, note the Accor branding…..

    There was a welcome gift of bottled water, a nice little touch, a choice between still or sparkling.

    The drinks voucher for the welcome drink.

    The selection of drinks was, as usual, weak, although I can tolerate Boddingtons as a last resort and especially when it’s free. The pint was fuller than this when served, but I drank some so I didn’t spill it when walking to the table.

    The bar and restaurant area, which is also used for breakfast. I don’t like the pool table there, this seems to be a concept rolled out by Accor to make the public areas feel more accessible. In the case of this hotel, the brand needs to sort out the restaurant and bar options if they want this area to be better used. There was a menu of what sounded like uninspiring microwave based meals, it didn’t sound entirely appealing and I’m not sure why Accor persist with this. I noted the review:

    “When staff asked about my meal, I said it was awful. She apologised and wished me a good evening! Not sure why she bothered to ask.”

    Which amused me when picturing the scene in my mind. Perhaps I need to get out more. Another person seemed pleased with their experience:

    “The food in the “restaurant” was disgusting.the chicken fillet burger came with half cooked, greasy chips, over cooked chicken smothered in horrible greasy cheese, and a stale bun, no salad or garnish. probably the worst meal I have ever tried to eat in my entire life. I would rather kill myself than spend another night in this s******e”.

    The lift in the hotel also slightly scared me when I used it, which was rarely as I prefer to use the stairs. Guests excitedly get into the lift to go to their floor and press the button and are seamlessly taken up in an elegant and smooth journey. Well, that’s the theory. This lift clunks about, seems to think about what it’s going to do, then judders up, keeps the door shut, jolts sharply and then opens the door to disgorge the slightly confused occupants.

    I was again moderately amused at the review on TripAdvisor:

    “Partner got stuck in lift for over ten minutes, staff weren’t bothered.”

    I’ve been picturing this scene with some amusement, although I’m sure it wasn’t funny at the time. I also liked the review of the angry guest who was too hot, so the hotel gave him a fan and then one of the blades fell off.

    This review also moderately surprised me:

    “Stayed one night after a friends funeral in Chesterfield, the room at £69 was over priced plus there using duvets on the bed which the wife wasn’t happy with. And there wasn’t a spoon with the team making facilities which was probably down to the cleaning staff.”

    I suspect the hotel was equally surprised that someone left a 1/5 review because of a missing tea-spoon and that there was a duvet. They replied:

    “I apologise if the housekeeping staff accidentally failed to leave a teaspoon in your room, however, this could have been corrected immediately if reported. With regards to the room having a duvet on the bed, this is the generally the case in most modern hotels.”

    The cold options at breakfast.

    The hot options and I very much approve of the quality of the sausages and bacon, which I perhaps over-indulged in. There was the provision of disposable cups for those wanting to take their hot drinks away, with some interesting teas also available for guests. The quality of the breakfast was fine, the staff were also pro-active in ensuring that everything was kept topped up. I can’t say that a large number of guests opted for breakfast though, I suspect the nearby Wetherspoons and other outlets might have tempted some away.

    Overall, since this cost around £30 per night including breakfast, it’s hard to complain too much about the hotel. So I won’t, especially as the staff were all friendly and the house-keeping staff were efficient and restocked everything. It feels slightly dated, but I liked the hotel and I’d stay here again if I fancy coming back to Chesterfield to look at their wonky church.

  • Chesterfield – Chesterfield Library

    Chesterfield – Chesterfield Library

    The priority for me when visiting a new town or city is to visit their Good Beer Guide pubs, check the quality of the Greggs (which rarely disappoints) and then just have a little meander into their library. You can tell a lot about a town or city by the state of its library…..

    And this is a rather lovely library, above is the local history section which had what I’d consider to be an above average selection of books about the area. The library was also peaceful, which is what I think is essential, although many visitors don’t with their ringing phones, shouting and playing music. Chesterfield wasn’t too bad in this regard and the atmosphere was clean and comfortable.

    I visited the library twice, as once is never enough for buildings such as this, with the second visit having the additional excitement of six police officers rushing in to arrest someone. I initially hoped that they were arresting someone who had been excessively loud in a library, which I consider to be a capital crime, but I don’t think that was the purpose of the police’s visit on this occasion.

    The building is spacious and feels modern, although it dates back to the mid 1980s. Before then, the library was located in part of what is now Chesterfield Museum and Art Gallery, with the museum keeping a book trolley as a little memento of that time.

  • Chesterfield – North Midland House

    Chesterfield – North Midland House

    This building, located just to the front of Chesterfield railway station, doesn’t look overly exciting in its slightly isolated landscape, but it’s noted as being the only surviving building from the town’s original 1840 station complex.

    Here’s the sign on the front of the building, designed by Francis Thompson. There’s just one little problem, although the building is of a similar design to the first railway station, it might not relate to the station complex itself according to some writers. Which does leave the question of why exactly it was built, something which I can’t work out the answer to and which, like many things, there appear to be numerous answers to.

    A side view of the building, which fronts onto Corporation Street, and once sat at the end of the freight lines which are no longer there having been replaced by the station’s car park. Looking at old maps, the building seemed to stretch for longer, so something to the side of the current structure has been demolished at some point.

  • Sheffield – Woodthorpe Grange Milk Vending Machine

    Sheffield – Woodthorpe Grange Milk Vending Machine

    I’ve never seen a milk vending machine, but it seems a good idea. This one was installed at the platform of Sheffield railway station in 2016 by the Woodthorpe Grange Farm. Unfortunately, when I was there in March 2020 the machine was turned off and there was nothing inside, so it’s either just not been restocked or it was a failed project and no-one has removed the machine yet. I hope it’s the former, it’s a handy way for people to get milk on their way home and it supported the efforts of a local farm.