Clarendon Hotel

Stayed here for two nights due to a family wedding so not really by choice. The hotel is a 3 star hotel in need of decorating and improvements. It claims to be the premier Georgian hotel in South East London, i have no doubt that it is but when you consider it has the likes of Lewisham, Charlton etc to compete with i wouldnt say it was something to shout about.

Little things appeared to be to much trouble for the staff, like ordering a newspaper for the following morning, this can be done but the paper has to be collected from reception! on requesting an iron i was informed that there was an ironing room, this turned out to be a dirty laundry room with a wet floor piled high with dirty towels and laundry with a stained ironing board in one corner.

Breakfast was adequate but no better than that. The most shocking thing is that they charge £110.00 for a Crown room even with a discount, definitely not in the bracket where they can charge these sort of rates.

We had a room in the Heathview Wing, top floor. View was lovely all right. Pity that the windows were old and did not really muffle out the traffic noise, or even open easily. The heat in the room was almost unbearable. The floor of the room was not level, so that moving from the window to the bed, you actually walked downhill. Some of the furniture in the room (especially the cupboard) where askew too.

On two occasions, the linen was ripped and with spots. Television was blurry, teapot filled with water from the previous guest (who knows for how long). The bathroom had pretty old fittings, with two separate taps for hot and cold. Not really up to today's standards. Showering was a challenge, since water pressure was quite low and temperature hard to set. One light bulb in bathroom was broken during our entire stay.

The elevator is outdated and quite damaged. (Door is incredibly loud and the elevator ceiling is cracking.) General cleanlines in the hotel is below average. (Example: on the 2nd floor - elevator area, there were 2 used wine glasses left on the window sill. These glasses stayed there for 3 entire days!)

Breakfast: Typical englisch breakfast. Quality was ok. Orange juice horrible. Waiting staff seemed a little confused.

We stayed in the Clarendon recently whilst attending a family occasion, In general the hotel was average, the room was a triple which had three single beds, we had booked am superior room with a double and a single, but this is what we got.

The bathroom was something out of a time warp, tiny sink that you could hardly wash in, and very compact.

The food was ok in the restaurant , although we did order sandwiches which took 40 minutes to come and when they did they were stale and inedible!

The head receptionist was very frosty and rather unpleasant, and as for the duty manager that day , he was useless, we complained about the sandwiches and he didn't even give his apologies.

The location in Blackheath is perfect, a lovely view across the heath, this is the best thing about the Clarendon Hotel, and no we won't stay again.