...after reading previous reviews. I was dreading 1/ check-in taking forever, 2/ railway noise, 3/ nowhere nearby to eat at a weekend, 4/ a scrum for a poor breakfast etc. My fears were unfounded. 1/ On arrival at 7.30pm on a Friday the reception was very busy with people checking in and what looked like a school prom. We were attended to immediately and were in our room within ten minutes. As it was nearly bedtime for our small daughter, I grabbed a takeaway pizza for DW and me from Pizza Express which is about three minutes walk away. 2/ Our room was right on Fenchurch St. station platform but do you know what, we could barely hear the trains, the lines mustn't have any joints there because you don't hear any of that clunkety-clunk train noise. You could just hear some of the station announcements but only just. Yes, we would have loved to have been lucky and got a view of the Tower but we weren't so the curtains just stayed closed most of the time. The bed was comfortable and the bathroom although a bit on the small side was reasonably equipped with nice toiletries. 3/ If you head away from the Tower into the city you will find a lot of the places, even little convenience shops closed for the weekend but there's a Wetherspoons pub right across the road for a pint and a bite to eat, the aforementioned Pizza Express is close by too. Not fine dining but acceptable reasonably priced grub. On Saturday night we walked to St .Katherine's dock about five minutes away and went to Strada, a chain Italian restaurant. All good, service, food and price. A bottle of wine was about the same as you'd pay at restaurants where I live and the water for the table was bottled filtered tap water FOC. A pleasant surprise in London not to feel your eyes are being taken out. I suppose some may find the area too quiet at night so if you want some kind of massive rave party your probably out of luck round there. 4/ We aren't big breakfast eaters and the selection for Continental breakfast was fine. Cereals, fresh fruit salad, cold meats and cheese, bread rolls etc. Fruit juices weren't of good quality but there was enough selection to have a decent start to the day. The coffee was terrible though, only barely warm when it didn't need to be. Breakfast room was only about a third full at 8.30 am. We booked this hotel based on price and because it had a pool and a central London location with good access to the tube so we could use that to explore London. It fitted the bill on all these points, now if only they could warm their coffee up and upgrade me to an Imperial Super Deluxe Maharajah suite next time!

Booked a tripel room, to dbl beds and a sofabed at c-in (1pm) the eastern european girl told us that housekeeping would come to the room at do the extra bed asap, at midnight this hasnt happent yet, after a phone call asking for a toothbrush and help with the extra bed at man came to our room with the toothbrush, but couldn't be bothed to help us with the sofabed, so we call rep again and after at 1 am, two men came and helped us out with the sofa bed, the room (1018) was in a need of a refurbishment, most af the staff looked really stressed and the Concierge seemed obessed with knowing where we where going every time we aksed them to get a cab,

Surprisingly bad service. Took over 15 minutes to manage the check in, although I was the only person at the counter. had to pay a fortune for internet access, and it's not even Wi-Fi. I had to get a cable in reception, but it was broken. Rooms OK, but hotel personnel suddenly come in to my room early in the morning to deliver a message. The next morning the wake up call came 20 minutes too early.

This was a business trip for my wife that my daughter and I added ouselves to so no choice in Hotel for us. I found the Hotel Very clean, neat and friendly. They were responsive to any requests we had. My wife asked for a room change to the 11th floor after third floor room overlooked a working office. The higher room had a nice view of St Paul's Dome. This is a very convenient spot for Tower of London and BRidge. Right down the block from Tower Hill Stop and accessable to #15 bus. With the window open you could hear some noise from the street but it was not overwhelming. And that was with a prom there that night. It was a 15-20 minute ride to any of the city highlights and I think that was fine! Did not partake it any of the fitness or restaurant amenities. OVerall a good place to stay, even if you don't have business in this part of the city as my wife did.

I've stayed here a couple of times, most recently for the Royal Ascot race meeting - its handy for Bank Tube and the Waterloo and City Line. Generally the location is good for the City, the West End is easily reachable on the Tube from Bank or Tower Hill. It has a superbly equipped gym and a really excellent pool, can't imagine there's a better hotel swimming pool anywhere in London. Bar is ok and not overly pricey and the breakfast again is ok, the standard buffet that you see at most hotels these days. I have to say the hotel falls down a bit on its rooms. I wasn't overly impressed by the cleanliness of my room and I'm not one of those really picky, fussy types. I think the standard of the rooms are more 4 star than 5. Service is god though and can't complain about the staff who all seemed pleasant and helpful.