The Rookery

I travel a lot for work and have stayed in scores of hotels. This is one of the 2-3 nicest ones I have stayed in. It is in a neighborhood of London that is taking off, and has a great selection of great restaurants and bars withing a stone's throw. It is suremely well located, near the City but also right by a Tube station and a 20 minute walk from the theatre district. The hotel itself is a lovingly restored 17th century inn. The public areas are elegant without being overwhelming, and the room I stayed in, a standard double, was wonderful. A very comfortable antique double bed, a bathroom with a deep, old-style bathtub, that was itself as big as some hotel rooms I have stayed in in Europe. Lovely wood mouldings, period furniture, and modern touches (wifi, flatscreen hd tv, dvd players, etc.) to round it all off. I had breakast there twice, and both offerings were lovely and quite reasonably priced. The staff was uniformly courteous and supremely helpful. I could not recommend this hotel highly enough.

My husband and I live and work in London. We live in deepest, darkest South London and in fact I have an hour long commute to my office in West London every day.

We also have a 7 month old baby who we are reluctant to leave, but we really needed a break and his godparents kindly offered to babysit and housesit for a whole weekend.

I had heard about the Rookery before and we thought it would be perfect for a weekend as 'tourists' in London but still be close enough to get home to our baby if necessary.

I can't say enough good things about this place.

Service is good- friendly, interested but discreet staff.

As soon as you enter the foyer you know you are in for a treat- wood panelling, deep pile carpets, lovely oil paintings and flowers everywhere. I instantly relaxed.

Our room was the lovely 'Mary Lane' , rather like sleeping in a hayloft- lots of beams and panelling above our antique bed. Extremely romantic and cosy.

A note- keep the windows shut and the air conditioning on if you are warm- the Rookery is a stone's throw from the famous club 'Fabric' and at throwing out time (5am ish), that room would be noisy with the windows open.

The bathroom has Aveda toiletries (another tick in my book and we had a huge roll top bath. It was bliss. I had 4 baths in 2 days.

Order a pot of tea for two and you get lovely biscuits with it!

There is a cute little garden out the back- like a patio filled with urns of flowers. We brought some champagne with us and drank it outside before going out for dinner. There is no restaurant- breakfast is delivered to your room but we saved the £15 and went to the M&S food hall right next door which is also open till midnight every night.

Loads of choice nearby to eat. We went to Smiths of Smithfield on the Friday night for a steak. Buzzy atmosphere, full of after work suits, but average food. Saturday night we went to Vinoteca on St Johns Lane parallel to the Rookery. (the famous St John restaurant was closed for refurbishment).

Staff were extremely knowledgeable about wine and food.

The food was fantastic- best meal either of us have had in a long time and we are not your average punters as my husband runs a restaurant and bar and is passionate about good food and usually terribly critical! Attention to detail was very good. They make their own biscuits to go with the cheese platter and they were absolutely sublime!

Definitely reccommend Vinoteca.

Ididn't want to leave the Rookery- it was a wonderful weekend and a fantastic hotel. I have a very demanding job and am not allowed to take a holiday during the summer months so this was a perfect break for me to recharge my batteries.

We will be back and I really recommend it for a luxurious treat in the heart of the city.