Barkston Gardens Hotel

My wife and I enjoyed our stay at this hotel, which is located in the South Kensington neighborhood in London. The hotel is located right across the street from the Earl's Court Tube stop, on the Picadilly Line, so access to all of London and beyond is great. Our impression of the hotel was that they were doing a good job of updating & maintaining this collection of converted row-houses, which is typical of small London hotels. Our room featured a full bath, which was very clean and in good condition. As well, it was not a "Water Closet", which we'd run into our last time in London. (where a small closet is converted into a bathroom, without being enlarged) So, overall, we give this hotel two thumbs up, and would definitely stay again.

The room was clean and the bathroom spacious. They added an extra single cot to accomodate my 7 year old for an extra charge. Breakfast was fine. Location was close to Earl's Court making access to the city easy.

Reviews we read prior to booking prepared us for the pros and cons. The lobby area is nice, staff helpful, but rooms are in need of new carpet and updating - and the floors were even creakier than we imagined! We were fortunate to have a room on the top floor, so we only heard the creaking from adjoining rooms - I'd imagine it could be rather annoying if you were below it. The area is quite busy so front rooms might have been noisy, but we were in the rear and had no problem sleeping. As others have commented, the wireless was a little erratic, but we managed. Water pressure wasn't great, but overall we felt satisfied that we got what we paid for. The area is very convenient - lots of restaurants and stores where we could pick up groceries. Although it is not in the heart of the city, the Earl's Court Underground stop is just around the corner and that gave us access to everywhere we wanted to go, including St. Pancras train station and Heathrow. Be aware that the ticket lines in the station can be quite long, especially in the morning.

We can recommend this hotel to all London visitors.

Hotel is good value for the money (when booked through Hotel Club). The hotel was chosen for its proximity to Earl's Court Underground Station (Piccadilly line to Heathrow airport and District line to other required destinations) hence its "very good" (for me) location rating. Bathroom in room 400 needs a shaving light.

Good value accommodation in excellent location for access to city and airport.

the shower was poor for pressure and temperature and it is sad to see that the hotel bar has reduced its draught selection to carlings with all the good english ales, i wonder why. we have stayed at barkston gardens many times over the past 10 years but will definitely look for other accommodations in teh future.

This hotel is in a great location. It's very close to a major subway station. The rooms are small but decent and bathroom is large. The front rooms have very nice balconies. I would recommend bringing your own toilettries (shampoo, etc.). Also, we were there in the summer and the room was hot so we asked for a fan.

Carpets are old and smelly. Did not get a wake up call for 3 am as promised. Luckily I woke up at 3:30 for 4 am taxi to get to the train station.

I was at the hotel for a conference, and thus spent almost all of my time away from the room. It was a great location for my purposes, decent neighborhood, and a reasonable price. However, part of that reasonable price was based on the inclusion of internet access. Yet the internet did not work for my first 4 days there. This was a big inconvenience given that I needed it for work. I ended up having to pay for internet before discovering that I could use it free at the library (so I am now a Kensington/Chelsea library member without ever seeing a book at the place). I asked about the internet nearly every day, and got mostly the same story: not their fault, working on getting a new provider. Yet no one offered to comp me anything despite my mention of how inconvenient it was. The best I got was pointed in the direction of a dingy, pay internet cafe - but again, I had chosen this hotel based partly on internet, so in effect was already kind of paying for it. I would have been happy even with an offer of a free breakfast or something. The second major problem was that it was a hot week, and the heat seemed to be on in the building. My bathroom had a radiator that also served as a towel rack (nice, hot towels). However, the valve on the radiator did not close, and thus this thing was always kicking out heat. If I had internet in my room, I might have worked from it. But had that been the case, the heat would have made it intolerable. The only reason the room was comfortable, at all, is because I rarely came home until after dark, the bed was next to the window (that I was forced to leave fully opened, insecurely due to laptop, camera, etc. in my room, to keep the room from becoming a sauna), and I slept in light clothes usually without even a sheet on me. I mostly slept like a baby, but any minute I spent in my room during daylight hours was intolerable. The hallways of the hotel were just as bad.