St Simeon's Hotel, South Kennsington
I needed to stay a week in South Kennsington to go to a conference at Imperial College London. I booked in a hurry on Expedia and ended up at St Simeon's Hotel 38 Harrington Gardens, South Kensington, London SW7 4LT. I paid about £87 a night over 4 nights. Harrington Gardens is a beutifyl street of grand old houses, until you get to the end where the grand old houses look a little tired and there is St S's.
The rooms I saw were all rather odd shapes, hemmed in by the fabric of an old building and no doubt also by building regulations. My room was over full of furniture. Two beds one large and one very small, the large one with no room on either side to get out. A TV but no desk or table. A shower and toilet. The shower was adequate if old fashioned (no thermostat) and the shower curtain did not fit so the floor flooded. The (window) curtains lacked any curtain hooks and were ties somehow to the rails and did not slide. The bed was clean and comfortable.
The whole place was rather eccentric. Imagine a group of aliens had landed on earth with a vague idea of how a hotel should be based on some scant research. Perhaps they picked up Fawlty Towers and other TV programmes from their planet. But many details gave them away. For example there was a kitchen available from after breakfast until 9pm for the use of the Guests! One could make ones own tea and coffee there. There was a fast wireless internet that was included in the price (it was hinted you need a room close to reception for it to work, and as my room was ground floor that was fine).
Breakfast was the biggest give away of the alien origins. As a ruse the staff of the hotel pose as people from distant European countries such as Hungary and Romania as a cover for their strange accent and extraterrestrial behaviour.
The Continental Breakfast consisted of a selection of bread - this could include muffins, bagels, sliced bread, crumpets etc. I say selection. But the selection was made for you, as was your seat, by the waitresses. And then there was two types of jam that were clearly not made of any fruit known on earth, Not unpleasant but impossible to identify. The coffee was genuine earth coffee so they did that research right. A request for cereal elicited a blank look. They dont have breakfast cereal on the planet zog. My table-neighbour asked for juice. Specifically she tried for orange juice -- surely a staple of continental breakfast the continent only. Usually served with small hard white euro rolls. But no. The juice de jour was strawberry juice! The next day it was rasberry. At no time was any of the usual juices served. In fact it was very nice and appeared to be freshly made by squeezing fruit. These Zogians taking it very literally.
All in all and interesting cultural experience. So if you want to volunteer for the Earthling study programme of the Zoggian Scientific Academy, you like strange but nice juice and would like to make your own tea while visiting South Kennsington see if you can get a better deal at St S's than me and it might be worth it. If however you are an American with fixed ideas of what constitutes a Hotel, go to Holiday Inn.
The rooms I saw were all rather odd shapes, hemmed in by the fabric of an old building and no doubt also by building regulations. My room was over full of furniture. Two beds one large and one very small, the large one with no room on either side to get out. A TV but no desk or table. A shower and toilet. The shower was adequate if old fashioned (no thermostat) and the shower curtain did not fit so the floor flooded. The (window) curtains lacked any curtain hooks and were ties somehow to the rails and did not slide. The bed was clean and comfortable.
The whole place was rather eccentric. Imagine a group of aliens had landed on earth with a vague idea of how a hotel should be based on some scant research. Perhaps they picked up Fawlty Towers and other TV programmes from their planet. But many details gave them away. For example there was a kitchen available from after breakfast until 9pm for the use of the Guests! One could make ones own tea and coffee there. There was a fast wireless internet that was included in the price (it was hinted you need a room close to reception for it to work, and as my room was ground floor that was fine).
Breakfast was the biggest give away of the alien origins. As a ruse the staff of the hotel pose as people from distant European countries such as Hungary and Romania as a cover for their strange accent and extraterrestrial behaviour.
The Continental Breakfast consisted of a selection of bread - this could include muffins, bagels, sliced bread, crumpets etc. I say selection. But the selection was made for you, as was your seat, by the waitresses. And then there was two types of jam that were clearly not made of any fruit known on earth, Not unpleasant but impossible to identify. The coffee was genuine earth coffee so they did that research right. A request for cereal elicited a blank look. They dont have breakfast cereal on the planet zog. My table-neighbour asked for juice. Specifically she tried for orange juice -- surely a staple of continental breakfast the continent only. Usually served with small hard white euro rolls. But no. The juice de jour was strawberry juice! The next day it was rasberry. At no time was any of the usual juices served. In fact it was very nice and appeared to be freshly made by squeezing fruit. These Zogians taking it very literally.
All in all and interesting cultural experience. So if you want to volunteer for the Earthling study programme of the Zoggian Scientific Academy, you like strange but nice juice and would like to make your own tea while visiting South Kennsington see if you can get a better deal at St S's than me and it might be worth it. If however you are an American with fixed ideas of what constitutes a Hotel, go to Holiday Inn.
posted by Billlion at
11:43 AM
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