St Christopher's Orient Espresso

The mattress had exposed springs so I was sleeping on metal with one flat pillow. I paid 55 aud a night to share a room with a friend so 110 per night to walk up 5 flights of stairs and get to a tiny hot dusty room with not much ventilation. Checking in at one place and then walking down the road after a 24 hour flight just sucks and is surely not necessary. The shower had a clump of hair in it for the three mornings I wasthere and I ended up removing it as I figured it was never going anywhere.

I like to see the positive in everything so I did like that it had a womens only floor with tampons and other girly stuff for free in the loos. Thats ace when travelling. Very close to the tube station too but I say for the same price go to Wigram house in Victoria

The Location

-- I like it that its next doorish to the London Bridge Underground station. The Borough Market, Southwark Cathedral, the Market Porter Pub and delicious Monmouth Coffee are also just across the street.

-- I didn't like walking about 120m just to get to St Christopher's reception and bar - in the cold rain...

The Reception

-- I like Julian, the helpful French guy at the reception (merci beaucoup).

-- I was extremely appalled by that rude Asian woman working with Julian (I think her name's Vicky).

The Bar

-- I am grateful to the helpful Canadian barman (thanks for the help with directions)

-- I didn't quite enjoy the breakfast food and sticky table full of dried up unmopped spillage.

The Room

-- I like my clean and comfortable "Oasis" room.

-- I took a while to get used to the loooong way up all those steps to my top-floor room (bad news for people with heavy bags).

Generally, I enjoyed my stay and will go back. Will just pack lighter and make sure I don’t deal with that rude woman.

Yvonne (Singapore)

We have just returned from a pleasant stay at the Orient Espresso in London. The first impression was that it was clean. The showers and toilets were cleaned everyday. We are a group of five people who booked an entire dorm room of six beds to get privacy. For a hostel the comfort is good we all thought. In our group there are members from 15 year-olds to 52 year-olds.

The breakfast is continental, toast with jam and corn flakes with milk and coffee and tea and it is served at the hostel where the reception is. Of the three hostels at this street the Orient Espresso is very quiet and the party was probably at the St Christopher's Village.

The staff was nice and very helpful. The system with keycards is good as well.

The beds were bunkbeds with OK matresses, and very clean linen.

The location was close to the underground London Bridge and also very close to buses. I can also recommend the airport transfer service which can be booked through the hostel's homepage. The coach took us from the airport directly to the hostel which was very comfortable.