Clarendon Hotel

Despite previous reviews, I really quite liked this hotel. The location in Blackheath was a pleasant surprise and on a sunny evening there was nowhere nicer to be than in my large room at the front of the hotel with the sun streaming in! Yes, there was traffic noise (I had to have the windows open as it was very warm), and yes, it is a bit creaky on the floors and along the corridors, and yes, you can hear noise from the corridors, but I felt the hotel had character and was very comfortable and good value for money. Blackheath village with all sorts of restaurants is a 3 minute walk, a lovely pub 1 minute to the right outside the hotel, and a green with duckpond etc., and all within 15/20 minutes travel of central London. I found it clean, staff were effficient (if not overly friendly) and had an enjoyable stay.

nicely situated, opposite beautiful green, right by bus stop for the o2 which is 10 mins away. good walk to greenwich park and greenwich.

Spent a night in the family room, brilliantly sized, 2 rooms, one with double bed in, the other room with 3 singles in, all uncomfortable, tiny bathroom, chipped and filthy sink.

noisy of a night from outside, and we could hear the running up and down of people on the floor above us. moderately priced paid L135 night with breakfast that was luke warm. and absolutely stank in corridor, and worse in room of, a cross between dirty disinfectant / urine. could still smell the horrible next day even when out and about ! sorry that put me off staying their ever again.

Where to start?! From the outset, our experience of the Clarendon was not a good one. On arrival, the grossly inadequate car park was full to the brim. On asking door staff we were told "you can try the other car park round the back but that one's full too" leaving us to drive around for 10 minutes, eventually parking in a very exposed location and having to drag our luggage across to the hotel.

Check in should have been straight forward, except that despite carefully booking on their own website, the reservation was under the wrong name. After following directions up and down staircases and through several doors, we arrived in a very outdated room with exposed pipework, and decor desperately in need of renovation. However, all appeared clean and tidy, so the room staff seemed to take pride in their job. For a hotel room of this price, there was some expectation of quality touches, but the stingy supply of toiletries and tea and coffee facilities soon put paid to that.

On return from an evening out, we were looking forward to a good night's rest. Unfortunately, such an expectation was not to be fulfilled at an obviously busy Clarendon hotel, with all entrances surrounded with drunk rowdy smokers, one of which was situated outside of our thinly windowed room, thus preventing any sleep until the early hours, which after an hour or two was interrupted by the return of a large group booking on the floor above, crashing doors, shouting loudly and running from one room to the next. The lack of any decent sound proofing made this unbearable, and apparently staff at the Clarendon must be trained in the art of turning a blind eye, as this cacophony went on for what seemed an eternity.

Fortunately the rest of our stay was fairly uneventful yet also unimpressive, topped off with incorrect billing due to some miscommunication between the point of booking and hotel systems.

It's clear that the management of the Clarendon are well aware of their good location and lack of any competition in the vicinity, as demonstrated by the high prices for what is essentially a very dated, noisy and unimpressive hotel.