Travel review: Park Plaza Westminster Bridge
Ever since the Reverend Mr Eager pitied poor Lucy Honeychurch, Edwardian Englisher abroad and heroine of EM Forster's 1908 novel A Room With a View, for her status in Italy as a “tourist,” the word has only gotten dirtier.
Travel now is all about the “authentic” experience – two weeks living like a local in an apartment in an up-and-coming neighbourhood found on Airbnb, complete with recommendations for little-known artisan bakeries and off-the-beaten-track markets.
Sometimes, however, it's just nice to have a view that makes it on to postcards, and not many London locals can lean out their window and almost touch the London Eye. If my windows on the tenth floor of the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge had actually opened, I could have given it a good try. As it was, it was enough to lay back and watch its infinitesimal progress from the bed, and to have Big Ben as my wall clock.
You won't find a hotel closer to the landmarks that make London – walk out the door and you're on Westminster Bridge, among the throngs of iPad photographers. And while they may top lists of annoyances in cool travel guides, I was more than happy to join them for a night, forget the fact that I used to live in London (although probably never got this close to the Houses of Parliament in the whole time that I did), and recapture the joy of being an old-fashioned tourist.
The four-star hotel is of the type that's comfortingly and anonymously a world unto itself; bustling with well-heeled international arrivals and boasting a gift shop, spa, pool, gym, business centre, a brasserie, tapas bar, patisserie and sushi restaurant, a cocktail bar and a coffee bar – all behind a glass front that makes the most of those views even from inside. Room service will deliver anything from nachos to pancakes, curries to cheese platters, while in your room you'll find a mini bar that's more like a mini kitchen – stocked with Toblerone, of course, in case the holiday vibes start to flag.
The rooms are all sleek black lacquer and burnt sienna with charcoal accents, and while the murals of orchids and Latin text feel a little “spa,” the coffee table photography books and enormous televisions with free wi-fi and movies on demand, not to mention the floor-to-ceiling views of the best-known bits of London's skyline, are distraction enough from them. The marble-lined bathroom, stocked with Dead Sea toiletries, forms the divide between sitting room and bedroom, where the bed is time-suckingly comfortable and the mood lighting system is lots of fun.
The Park Plaza may not be modish but it does what it does beautifully, with impeccable and welcoming service, and the giddiness of the bona-fide sightseer within striking distance of the sights that you just won't find in a hip holiday rental in Hackney included in the room rate.
Park Plaza Westminster Bridge
200 Westminster Bridge Road
London
SE1 7UT
Telephone: 0844 415 6790
