2023.10 Edinburgh and London (part 7)

2023.10 Edinburgh and London (Part 7)

There are so many hotels in London, selecting one could be an overwhelming experience.  Our choice was the combination of; a central location, and a Hilton property, because we could use Hilton’s loyalty benefit of staying five nights and using the point cost of four nights.  Without needing an indoor pool, and wanting to be close to an underground station, I selected the Conrad London St. James.

Neighbourhood

First off, the Conrad London St. James is central.  It’s across the street from it’s namesake London Underground station.  The station and hotel are both named after the park of the same name. This is the park that links Buckingham Palace, to the Horse Guards Parade, and the Admiralty House, and Whitehall, and… okay.  It’s central to a lot of London landmarks.

The station is under this building where the tower section is not aligned with the street grid.  I liked the art deco style architecture of the building.

Hotel

We arrived by taxi, as we had already become outnumbered by our luggage.  It would not have been a good scene if we attempted to take transit with more luggage than hands to lug them about.  It was a smart move as once we arrived, hotel staff opened the door to the cab, and instantly a porter appeared who eagerly collected our luggage.  From there it’s a short walk into the lobby where we were able to check-in quickly.

We remarked about the artwork in the lobby and the front desk staff smiled, and handed us a brochure that described the many pieces of art located throughout the hotel.  This was definitely a first for us!

With our room keys in hand we headed to the elevators.

But before we continue a bit more about the artwork.

One piece of artwork caught our attention and I think it was the most unique piece of art in the hotel.  Titled “The House always wins” we enjoyed spending time taking in the detail of it.  Located on the main floor between the lobby and the elevators, we stopped at it each time we passed, to try and find something new about it.

Given that it wasn’t a painting, nor a mural, nor a print made it that much more unique to me.

Room

Our room was on the fourth floor, and faced an interior area of the hotel.

I think out of our travels since I started this blog, we haven’t had a room that had switches to indicate to staff if we wanted our privacy, or were ready for the room to be cleaned.

Definitely a little different from a sign hanging off the door handle.  Our luggage quickly arrived, and the porter informed us of a few of the features of the room (such as power curtains, location of the fridge, and, mini-bar)

The room was a fair size.

Bathroom

The deep soaker tub was inviting.  One evening she made time to try it out, and it was lovely.  The doors led to the shower (left), and toilet (right).  Not pictured, was under the counter, a small cabinet on wheels, that easily held all of our toiletries, allowing the counter to be clutter-free during our stay.

The rest of the room was mostly bed.  Below is a slideshow of the bedroom area, complete with pictures of what was stocked in the mini-bar.

Now, across from the entrance to the bathroom was a large wardrobe where we easily unpacked our luggage for the stay.  The part I liked was that there were enough hangers for all of our clothing.  The left side of the wardrobe had shelves, including an in-room safe.  We stored our empty suitcases on the top shelf of the wardrobe.

On the desk was a bottle of sparkling wine, a selection of sweets, and, a handwritten card welcoming us to the hotel.

Next up, food offerings at the hotel.

Breakfast Buffet

Although the usual area for breakfast was undergoing renovations, breakfast continued to be available and had been relocated to the bar area.  The space, I think, was an improvement as it was filled with light overlooking the side street.

Each morning upon checking-in, we were immediately offered a mimosa before proceeding to our table.  We were seated at a different table each morning.  With a variety of seats, some tables were more comfortable than others. The wait staff provided a menu of hot, made-to-order items that were available for order.  We sampled some, and it complimented the buffet extremely well.

Below is a slideshow of the breakfast area.  The bar was setup with the hot food, and tables near the spiral staircase to the street were setup with fruit, cereals, juices, and an epic bread and pastry table.

Growing up in the Greater Toronto Area, seeing Buffalo Bills jerseys isn’t anything special.  Seeing a bunch of Buffalo Bills jerseys on a Sunday morning in a London hotel made me do a double-take.  Then it dawned on me “Why in the world are they wearing Buffalo Bills jerseys, in London?”  A quick search on Google confirmed the obvious, the NFL had a game at Tottenham’s stadium later that day.

The spread for breakfast was exceptional.  The single best item we enjoyed was a chocolate pastry that was part croissant, part muffin.  We had one each morning, until the last morning when we didn’t see one at all.  We mentioned it to one of the staff, and an example of customer service, one appeared a few minutes later.  It tasted divine.  Carb and chocolate heaven!

And below is a slideshow of the buffet items:

And this slideshow is of the breakfast items we enjoyed during our stay:

Now breakfast was also available to us in the…

Executive Lounge

Access to the executive lounge is either through your hotel room rate, or, like us and presumably most other guests, we were Hilton loyalty members with sufficient status to be granted access.  This can be useful as it depending on the lounge, the food can act as a supplement or replacement for meals.  This lounge was located (flipping through my notes) on the first floor.  This area was well appointed, and given the popularity of this hotel to North American Hilton loyalty members based on jerseys on Sunday morning, this lounge was busy whenever there was food available.  One day I used this space while Little Miss had a nap, and there were maybe a half dozen people in the space.  I didn’t need a watch to know when the afternoon tea was being served as the lounge was quickly filled to over 50%, and by the time evening snacks were on offer, my seat was in jeopardy from any impatient guest hunting for a seat.

Not pictured is that there is a small area between the food area and the washrooms that had seating more like a living room.  It was a cozy and quieter area of the lounge to use.  In addition, this lounge had something unique as there were showers available.  So, theoretically, one could land from an overnight flight into London, travel to the hotel, leave their luggage with the porter, have a shower in the lounge and then head out for the day without being concerned when their room would be ready.  I did overhear one of the staff remark to a guest “Will you be back next week, Sir?” and the answer was “Oh yes, I left my luggage in storage as I’ll only be in New York for the weekend.”

Breakfast

This is a straight forward selection of items.  The hotel offers rates that provide Executive lounge access, so would be a reason why some guests select this location over the main breakfast area.  After the first morning, and finding those amazing carb-filled buttery chocolate things, we only stopped by here to take a few pictures of the selection.

The selection was adequate, however we enjoyed having greater selection and additional made-to-order items available to us.

Afternoon tea

Out of our five night stay, we had afternoon tea on two of the days.  Below is the slideshow of the menu, along with the items available.

This was a wonderful treat as it helped to supplement whatever we had for lunch, and prevent us from having dinner before 6pm.

Evening Canapes

Every evening, for the Conrad it was 5:15-7:15pm, a selection of complimentary alcoholic beverages, and foods were available in the lounge.  On the night we checked in, we did arrive just as the service was ending.  The staff were more than accommodating and gave us some time to select some items to try.  Below are pictures of the beverages available along with some savoury snacks.

And below is a slideshow of the items available during the evening canapes.

From the pictures, the menu does change, and although it’s not enough to be an entire replacement for a meal, it does reduce how much you need to order at dinner to be full.  During our time in the lounge, the staff were ever-present and always quick to clear, and clean tables, as well as to replenish the available drinks and food available in the lounge.

Parking

When one arrives by taxi, why do I need to talk about parking?  Well, in order to visit her relatives, we rented a car.  I wasn’t interested in finding out how slow commuter rail service during weekends could be, so we rented a car for the weekend to visit relatives, northwest of the London, and southeast of London over the weekend.  For the one night was parked at the hotel, we returned late.  So late, that the valet service had concluded for the night and was not available.  The front desk clerk was able to provide me with an instruction sheet of where the nearest parking garages were located.  Little Miss headed to the hotel room and I made multiple errors trying to find the entrance to the parking garage.  Once in the parking garage I felt at ease that the Vauxhall SUV rental would be overlooked in case of theft given the other vehicles parked for the night, such as this Porsche 911, or the gorgeous Aston Martin.

Once outside, I walked the wrong direction for a few minutes before I realized I was headed away, not towards the hotel.  It was a quiet night as given the late hour, even for a Saturday, not many other pedestrians or vehicles were on the road.  The lighting to me made the walk feel like a movie set.

On our final morning, they effortlessly flagged a cab for our trip to the airport.

Explore other parts of this trip:

Part 1 – KLM Flight Toronto to Amsterdam

Part 2 – KLM Lounge, flight Amsterdam to Edinburgh

Part 3 – Bruntsfield Hotel, Edinburgh

Part 4 – Edinburgh sights

Part 5 – Food while in Edinburgh

Part 6 – LNER, Edinburgh to London

Part 7 – Conrad London St. James (this post!)

Part 8 – London

Part 9 – Star Alliance Lounge hopping at London Heathrow

Part 10 – Air Canada London to Toronto