An Ideal Hotel for London?

I have an affinity for Locke-at-Broken-Wharf. It may or may not work for you, but It's my favorite part of London by St Paul's and Millennium Bridge, within a half mile walk to several tube stations or Southwark. I tend to think their room are ideally sized for solo travelers.

SACO, Locke and Cove are aparthotel/serviced apartment brands owned by Edyn with a number of locations spread across London.
https://www.lockeliving.com/en
https://www.staycove.com/en
https://www.sacoapartments.com/

There's also Native at https://nativeplaces.com/
Native's Kings Wardrobe near St Paul's could be a location to explore. https://nativeplaces.com/property/kingswardrobe/

Look at the various properties, put them on Google Maps to get an idea for tube stations or pubs & restaurants near by.

I would recommend one of The Resident hotels. They have four in London: Kensington, Victoria, Covent Garden and Soho. They are highly recommended on this forum, the prices are within your budget (and if you become a member, which is free, you get 15% off). The rooms have small kitchenettes, which contain a fridge, microwave, sink with BRITA filter tap, kettle, dishes, and Nespresso coffee machine.

I have not stayed there (yet) but I'm booked at The Resident Victoria for early spring of next year, and it looks really nice. I chose it because of the excellent reviews I read by a lot of seasoned London travelers on this forum. Here is one thread that might be helpful.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/south-kensington-lodging

Our favorite location in London, after numerous visits from 2 days to 3 weeks, coincides with VAP’s—-the area around St. Paul’s, stretching across the Millennium Bridge to the South Bank. There are a number of aparthotels that might work for you, already named above.

Locke at Broken Wharf is our favorite, for the location right on the river, with river view rooms possible. But they might be small for the 2 of you, with only one queen bed possible. King’s Bedroom and Cove Cannon Street might offer something larger and with 2 beds. also consider Marlin Queen Street service apartments:

https://www.marlin.com/london-serviced-apartments/london-city-queen-street/rooms/

They have 1-bedroom apartments with living room sofa bed which appear to be within your budget.

Across the river, Native Bankside offers very nice apartments that appear to be a short walk (7-8 minutes) from London Bridge station. These are a bit more expensive, especially for a 1-bdr. With sofa bed, but the location, close to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, is great.

I will note that our choice of location is driven by our affinity for the river and the pedestrian path that lines it for miles in either direction. We love to walk, or hop on a river boat if we get tired. For areas to see away from the river, we walk or use the excellent bus system. I detest the Tube, personally, and avoid it whenever possible.

I'll add another vote for Locke at Broken Wharf. To me it's the ideal place to stay in London. Very convenient to the Tube; the City of London and many important sights are within short walking distance.

We spent a few days at the vancouver studios in bayswater. Very convenient to metro and kensington park and a real range of sizes in the rooms, including some apartments.

Thank you all for the replies thus far.

Great minds think alike...these places are on my radar.

The Resident locations are very much in consideration, and perhaps an early first choice, assuming the prices at the time are in our range.

Vancouver Studios certainly seems to tick our boxes as well, as do some Locke locations and the Wilde Aparthotels.

Another hotel that seemed like it could be promising when I looked was the Morton Hotel. Anybody know it? Their "Bloomsbury Suite" offers two bedrooms and a kitchenette.

I've also wondered about the pros and cons of staying above a pub (Sanctuary House, Mad Hatter, Hayden)

I'm very appreciative of all the suggestions this far, and if anybody has other recommendations or a favorite spot, I'm all ears!

Thanks,

I can help with Sanctuary House. That was our “go-to” hotel in London before we started booking aparthotels (for the kitchen). The location is excellent, and they will have twin-bedded rooms on offer (we put our daughters in one when we took them to London). The rooms have a fridge and a coffee maker. Full breakfast is included.

As for the “pros and cons” of a room above a pub, I cannot think of any “cons”. There is no noise, if that is your concern. It is a pretty calm pub, actually. The “pros” would be the easy accessibility—-the pub is not at your doorstep, it is right below your rooms, an elevator ride (or stairway if you prefer) away. You don’t have to step outside.

And after a few nights here, the barman may come to recognize you and chat a bit. A pint at the bar is much nicer than having a beer in your room.

Thanks, Lola, for the info on Sanctuary House.

I'm definitely intrigued, that's going on the short list.

Cheers.

I just stayed at the Sanctuary House earlier this month. It was the perfect location. So close to everything. A pro of staying above the pub is you have great food just downstairs. Like Lola mentioned, no cons that I experienced. We paid for breakfast which was very good. There was a fridge in the room as well as tea, coffee, hot chocolate. No microwave.

We used this service for laundry. They picked up and returned to the hotel’s reception desk.

https://www.laundryheap.co.uk/hotel/london/the-sanctuary-house-hotel

My trip report details everything we were able to easily do from that location.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/10-days-in-london-our-first-time-a-trip-report

Carrie, I cannot figure out their breakfast policy. When we stayed there (15-20 years ago), the included breakfast was a Continental type—-breads, croissants, cold cereals, fruit and yogurt, etc. One could pay extra and have the “full English” but we were happy with the lighter breakfast. Especially since the cereal choice included Kellogg’s Total which was my regular breakfast—-except that the UK version was much better!

Now if I do a pretend booking, it says that a “full cooked breakfast” is included in the regular rate. but you say you paid extra for breakfast. Maybe it varies by season? I was looking at winter rates (November-December).

Sorry Lola, I must have been remembering wrong. I thought you could book the room without breakfast for a lower rate. I see now that breakfast is included in all rate options.

Breakfast now includes the Continental items you mention and also the option to order hot items from the menu. The hot items included things like the full English, French toast, porridge, avocado toast, eggs benedict, and scrambled eggs. You could also include sides—sausage, bacon, hash browns. Also included was juice, coffee and tea. The only thing that cost extra was if you wanted a fancier drink (espresso, cappuccino, hot chocolate). All 3 of us enjoyed the breakfast. Although my sister and brother-in-law are not fans of European bacon, which is not as crispy as it is in the U.S.

A note on ordering items from the menu. They are cooked to order so expect about a 10 minute wait.

No problem, I was just trying to understand their current policy on breakfast, to help the OP decide.

But your comment about the UK bacon leads me to think we should have a thread on that topic. The word means such different things in different countries! When my Seattle alpine club hosted a similar group from the UK, and I did some of the cooking for them, they explained that our style is called “crispy bacon” rather than just “bacon”, and they were all going to go home and insist on that henceforth.

Although my sister and brother-in-law are not fans of European bacon, which is not as crispy as in the U.S.

Carrie, tell them to look for "streaky" bacon, which is much more like US bacon. I felt the same way they did, as I think the regular bacon tastes more like ham. But I've had streaky bacon and it is much better, imo. The best streaky bacon I had was when visiting my friends in Liverpool, and Ian fixed breakfast one morning with bacon he had gotten from a local organic farm shop. It was the best bacon I ever had.

ETA: I just saw this site, which explains it: :-)

Simply put, it’s all in the cut:
—-American bacon is cut from the belly of the pig. In the UK we call this “streaky” bacon. As you would expect, this cut is very fatty.
—-Canadian bacon is cut from the loin of the pig, so this is thicker, meatier and very lean.
—-British bacon is cut from the loin with a little part of the belly attached. This makes it much meatier than American bacon, but with the addition of the belly it is less dry than the Canadian bacon.

Thanks Mardee, that’s very helpful. I will make a note of streaky bacon for future trips.

expect the default British bacon to be what is called Back Bacon. The alternative is Streaky Bacon.

At one time Danish bacon was considered the best.

Then there are red label and blue label, usually red is smoked, blue isn't. And then air cure for the very best with less nasty stuff.

Bacon isn't just bacon.

Oh, and for the plant munchers there is also un-bacon.

OK, I just found this:

https://www.businessinsider.com/what-bacon-looks-like-around-the-world-2018-10

What started me on bacon was an experience I had in Melbourne when we were there for the Australian Open. We stopped in a food court for breakfast, and I went to a counter that served up whatever you wanted onto a plate. I asked for the scrambled eggs (nice deep yellow eggs, lightly cooked) and “ham”—-lean slices that looked like what we call Canadian bacon in the US. The server grinned and said, “I didn’t figure you for a Yank, but now I know. We call that bacon here, dear.”