Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Kensington

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Ibis Styles Kensington (Eighth Visit)

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Ibis Styles Kensington (Eighth Visit)

    This blog wouldn’t be complete without yet another post about this hotel in Kensington…. I still like the hotel, the welcome is friendly, the hotel is clean and the prices are highly competitive. Not only have I managed to post here multiple times about this hotel, I’ve also bored friends with it as well and one of them also happened to be staying here for the weekend.

    I was upgraded to a larger room and I think this is one of my favourites in the hotel. Spacious and with numerous seating options dotted around the place.

    There was a bath, as well as a separate shower (that isn’t in the photo), all very decadent.

    There is a balcony as well, but they’re locked that off.

    This was the view on Sunday morning. Rain. Not ideal…..

    There was no Tiger left, so this was my welcome drink choice. It was free, so I won’t complain.

    My obligatory breakfast bag photo…. I did go down in the basement to get a coffee, although it seemed to be measuring out rather small portions, albeit delicious tasting small portions.

    So, once again, all was fine and nothing exceptional happened that I feel the need to mention. And, this is good in a hotel, I don’t want too much drama. Incidentally, I hear that Richard had lots of drama in his two hotel visits this weekend elsewhere in the country, it’s a shame he doesn’t have a blog….

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Ibis Styles Kensington (Sixth Visit)

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Ibis Styles Kensington (Sixth Visit)

    My sixth visit to this hotel, which I wasn’t going to write up as I was meant to be coming back for a seventh visit during the week. Unfortunately, given the latest news, I’ve cancelled that and been refunded, so this will be my final Accor hotel of the year…. And that deserves a quick mention (to amuse me, not necessarily anyone else).

    This was an upgrade from a single room to a basic twin. I can’t complain, before loyalty discounts, this room cost £19 per night. Even the staff member was surprised at this pricing.

    The room from another angle, with my welcome drink of a Tiger beer. I’ve commented before that the drinks could be a bit more inventive, so I won’t drone on about that again….

    The breakfast, and I’m pleased to see that the Coco Pops are back. All rather satisfactory for £19 and the room was clean and tidy once again. It’s probably true, as a few reviewers have noted, that the breakfast offered could have been varied a little more, but this solution was convenient.

    For the first time, I had a look at the six buildings which make up this hotel, all knocked through to create a maze of corridors. The 1939 register shows the variety of people who lived here before the Second World War, it’s possible to work out who lived in each building and from this who used to likely occupy each of the now hotel rooms. Anyway, this hotel has been a useful base for my stays in London, I’m sure I’ll be back in 2021……

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – The Union Tavern near Westbourne Park

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – The Union Tavern near Westbourne Park

    This is the Union Tavern, near to Westbourne Park underground station and it’s a Fuller’s pub which has embraced craft beer. I was perhaps unfortunate that I seemed to arrive at the only time during that part of the afternoon that a table outside wasn’t available (I nearly always avoid outside, but it was very humid), although I hadn’t booked and I didn’t return to the bar to see if I could move to be fair.

    The temperature inside was way too hot for me, so I made this visit relatively brief and didn’t sample as many beers as I would have done. Track and trace was in operation though, the staff member was polite and everything was clean and tidy.

    A well thought through selection of beers, by far and away the best I’ve seen at a Fuller’s pub. I also liked that they made the effort to print these sheets out for customers, they were very useful. I went for a Cambrian Root by Vibrant Forest Brewery and this was well-kept with a rich taste of chocolate. There’s a focus on beers from London, but there are some other options as well, and their web-site mentions occasional meet the brewer sessions.

    This is a really good canned beer list, with Siren Craft, Tiny Rebel and Brew York amongst the choices.

    That’s all I can write about the pub, it was potentially a joy, but the heat drove me away much quicker than I had anticipated. But, from all accounts, its position in the Good Beer Guide seems justified from what I saw with a welcoming vibe to it.

  • London – Ibis Styles – Kensington (Second Visit)

    London – Ibis Styles – Kensington (Second Visit)

    I stayed at this hotel a couple of weeks ago and thought that for the money, it was entirely reasonable. Clearly, as I booked to come back, and I have another reservation here next week and two friends have now booked the hotel as well. On my last visit, the hotel was clean, although there were elements that suggested to me that things hadn’t been checked, such as an empty shower gel dispensers.

    This time the hotel kindly upgraded me to a family room, which was room 16, the Mozart Room.

    Interesting theming on the inside of the door, Ibis Styles remains my favourite of the Accor brands.

    And the room was absolutely spotless, and I had no reservations here about the cleanliness. The bathroom was also clean, although perhaps needed a little modernisation. However, this was a lovely room, although the view was a little limited. Not that that’s a complaint, it was much better than the room I’d paid for.

    My view that more Accor hotels should offer a craft beer option is unchanged, but I was willingly given the Bud as a welcome drink. And, on this note, the staff members I encountered were friendly, engaging and really welcoming. Customer service here isn’t a problem, it’s a comfortable environment to be in.

    The breakfast bag, with coffee available in the basement as it was before. Perfectly acceptable under the current circumstances.

    And, overall, this proved to be excellent value for the money I paid. Especially since I got a bonus 500 points from Accor (worth €10) and with other discounts, this managed to take the room price to just over £20 including the breakfast. Quite marvellous.

  • London – Ibis Styles – Kensington

    London – Ibis Styles – Kensington

    This is my first stay in an Accor hotel since March, with an offer rate of just over £25 per night including a basic breakfast. I’m not sure that I’ve seen that rate in a relatively central London hotel operated by Accor, so it seemed appropriate to take advantage of it.

    The bar area, located next to reception. I think I encountered four staff members during my stay and I’d say that they were all friendly, welcoming and engaging, so that was rather lovely. Check-in was swift, informative and polite.

    The sign at reception explaining what’s changed. Cleaning is now only offered on the third day and breakfast has been switched to a bag offered at reception. I had guessed this, but it’s perhaps inadequate that Accor don’t make this clear. Accor’s press office says that every hotel offers the same breakfast (I had wanted to ask numerous hotels what breakfasts they were doing, something they’re communicating badly), but this is a complete nonsense and their PR agency does no-one any good by suggesting it is. They didn’t offer the same breakfast before, so why they should be now, I have no idea. Anyway, I digress.

    The wall decoration in the reception area, a really quite nice and decorative map of the local area.

    There’s a Japanese theme to the hotel. I’m not sure why and it seems a bit of a half-effort, but I do like Ibis Styles themes.

    This is the single and small room, a feature of many hotels in the Kensington area of London (and many other areas of the city as well). In terms of cleanliness, it met my expectations, but I saw no evidence of a deep clean for a few reasons, such as the staff hadn’t realised there was nearly no soap left which I’d suspect would be obvious if everything was spotlessly cleaned and checked. But, expectations have to be a little measured given the room price and how many staff they have to clean the rooms. I thought the cleanliness was fine, just not perfect.

    That floating ‘l’ annoyed me. Not in a big way, but just a little bit.

    The breakfast, which remained the same every day other than on my final day when they mixed it all up by swapping the Coco Pops for a Frosties bar. It’s a nice effort, I thought the hotel did fine on this.

    The drinks voucher was offered, the welcome gift wasn’t. In normal times, that is rare for an Ibis Styles, but my expectations were more measured given everything going on.

    There was a choice of what I would considered to be three bloody awful beers and this was the best of a bad lot. It’s fair to say though that most people aren’t as bloody awkward about beer choices as I am (although I can name one). But, having said that, Ibis Styles is meant to be an on-trend brand, it’s time it moved on from rubbish beer like other hotel chains have done. Well, some hotel chains.

    In normal times, this was the breakfast area.

    The coffee machine, alongside spare coffee sachets and tea bags, was kept in action for those who wanted to venture down to the basement.

    So, all told, I thought that the hotel was doing really well. The staff seemed happy, they were engaging and friendly, the hotel public areas were kept clean and there were no noise disturbances. The air conditioning was better than in some hotels, but it never really chilled the room to the temperature that I like (frozen). There’s nothing essential that I thought that needed changing (a better beer selection would please me, but it’s hardly critical), so the value for money was excellent given what I paid.

  • London – Kensington – Natural History Museum (Megatherium)

    London – Kensington – Natural History Museum (Megatherium)

    A plaster cast of Megatherium, one of the largest mammals that has lived, and it’s effectively just a giant ground sloth. This cast was made in 1848 from two different skeletons and it’s been on display in the museum since 1850. I’m sure that, even at this large size, it still looked quite adorable and the animal could be as long as six metres in length from head to tail. They were found in the Americas and one of the reasons thought for their extinction around 12,000 years ago is human movement into the areas where they lived.

  • London – Kensington – Albert Memorial

    London – Kensington – Albert Memorial

    This is the subtle little memorial that was constructed in Kensington Gardens to honour Prince Albert, following his death in 1861. I’m not sure that many people have had a monument that took ten years to build and cost the modern equivalent of £10 million, although at least that was partly paid for by public subscription. The monument was unveiled by Queen Victoria in July 1872 and it was influenced by the thirteenth century Eleanor Crosses (here’s the one I visited in Waltham Cross).

    The statue was originally covered in gold, but this had worn off by the early twentieth century. It wasn’t replaced until relatively recently, in the late 1990s when the regilding was completed. I think it’s all a bit much, but it is a hugely impressive monument. The frieze at the base of the monument has 187 carved figures of various painters, poets, musicians and architects, although the public aren’t allowed that near to it to look at it properly.

  • London – Kensington – Natural History Museum

    London – Kensington – Natural History Museum

    This is primarily just a post with photos of the Natural History Museum, the quietest that I’ve ever seen it. I was able to get an advance ticket, which are free but require pre-booking on-line, for the museum and they’ve limiting entries to keep it safe inside. The whole process was well-managed, and they were sending back people to the end of the queue who tried to get in early (I secretly really applauded this, as I don’t like it when people break sensible rules). This was also the first museum I’ve seen where the staff were actively enforcing the rule of people wearing masks inside, which meant they had to warn a handful of visitors who had taken theirs off.

    There were no busy areas of the museum, there was plenty of space and almost endless amounts of hand sanitiser stations everywhere. Some areas of the museum were closed off, but there was still a sufficient amount to see. What the financial impact on the museum is I can’t say, but these must be challenging times.

  • London – Kensington – Churchill Arms

    London – Kensington – Churchill Arms

    It’s hard to deny that this pub obviously has character, even before walking in that’s evident. Although it wasn’t originally named after Winston Churchill, it is now at least a little themed around him and the pub’s web-site notes that his grandparents drank there.

    The interior of the pub was no less quirky. The staff in the pub were friendly, with the operation of track and trace being handled professionally and everything seemed clean. Just as my view, the beer selection was weak with no dark options, limited to London Pride (and I know many people like London Pride, but its appeal is a little lost on me) and Honey Dew, both from Fuller’s Brewery, who operate the pub. The pricing was some of the most expensive that I’ve seen, over £6 for a pint of real ale which tops the prices of nearly every central London pub I’ve visited. I was rather pleased that I only ordered half. The drink was, well, metallic in flavour with some sweetness. Lovely if you like Metal Mickey I suppose.

    The Honey Dew taste and price was enough for me to abort my plans to eat food, which was awkward as the staff member seemed moderately confused as why I hadn’t ordered after I said I was planning to. This was quite a surprise even to myself, as it was half price day for food as part of the Eat Out to Help Out, and the Thai kitchen menu items seemed intriguing and tempting. The reviews suggest that the food is excellent (and I could hear the number of phone calls coming in asking for reservations, but they were full), but there is something I didn’t like about any pub, even in Kensington, topping £6 for a pint of real ale, so I resisted the temptation of the Jungle Curry.

    But, the pub is clearly a local favourite and it has a long tradition with a friendly welcome. It wasn’t for me though, but I’d have probably been more of a fan of the whole experience if they’d stocked Fuller’s Porter. Incidentally, although the Thai cuisine perhaps seems a little mismatched for the British theme of the pub, it clearly works as they’ve been doing it since the early 1990s. Besides, any pub which has its own page on Wikipedia is likely worth a visit.