Palmers Lodge

This is a great hostel in a great location. The staff are excellent - always willing to help. My two qwams with the hostel were a. its really difficult to sleep at night given the floorboards and the creeking, etc. and b. the bathrooms constantly smelt like urine. Besides this it is excellent, probably more for the younger traveller looking to party. Definately recommend this hotel if thats your thing.

I almost always stayed there when I went on weekend trips to London. The rooms are clean, quiet, and the upper beds have a rail to stop you from falling down, which is critical for me, because otherwise I would fall off the bed in the middle my sleep. The rooms are large, with storage places. The breakfast was good because each person got to have a free croissant...and most hostels only give cereal in London. The location is a tiny bit sketchy at night, if you walk alone from the subway. But totally fine during the day. The bathroom tap is a little weird, but managable. I recommended it to a friend and he loved the place so much!

I stayed at Palmer's Lodge for 6 nights with my boyfriend and we were very glad that we found this hostel!

Swiss Cottage is quite central (12 min tube trip to Westminster, about the same by bus to Camden Town or Hamstead Heath), the hostel is beautiful, the staff is friendly and ready to help, there is always someone at the reception, no curfew, no huge keys, but magnetic cards to enter your room, what else should one ask for? :-)

A continental breakfast is included, there's also cheap dinner and drinks served in the evenings. You can play board games or nintendo wii, watch tv, read books, surf the internet or play billard in the lobby. You can get towels, toothbrushes or everything else you need at the reception. Internet access is free, you can use a laptop or one of the 6 computers at the hostel. There are lockable boxes and wardrobes in the rooms (bring a padlock for those or buy one at the reception) and also several places to store your luggage before checking in or after checking out.

The lobby is very beautiful, the rooms are simple and convenient, everything was clean, the food is not excellent, but qute alright for the price.

Everything about the hostel is great, the only thing I didn't like was the movement-sensitive lighting in the bathroom that forces you to dance while showering or brushing your teeth.