Jury's Clifton Ford Hotel (Oxford Street)

In most major UK cities I now have a favourite hotel, and as such the opportunities for new reviews are drying up. In London, however, I continue to try one different hotel after another, because none of them particularly fill me with excitement. London hotels are expensive, often quite tatty and the market still doesn’t seem hugely competitive to me. I’ve stayed in other Jury’s hotels around the country and have had mixed feelings, but I was alerted ...
...at Jury’s hotels in the UK and decided to try out one of their London offerings.

LOCATION AND CHECKING IN

The Clifton Ford hotel is situated off Wellbeck Street in West London. The Clifton Ford is almost certainly one of those hotels that you would choose for sightseeing or Christmas shopping. By Tube, Madame Tussaud’s is supposed to be about ten minutes away, as are the Tate Gallery, Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar ... more

In most major UK cities I now have a favourite hotel, and as such the opportunities for new reviews are drying up. In London, however, I continue to try one different hotel after another, because none of them particularly fill me with excitement. London hotels are expensive, often quite tatty and the market still doesn’t seem hugely competitive to me. I’ve stayed in other Jury’s hotels around the country and have had mixed feelings, but I was alerted to a special offer in the press for selected nights at Jury’s hotels in the UK and decided to try out one of their London offerings.

LOCATION AND CHECKING IN

The Clifton Ford hotel is situated off Wellbeck Street in West London. The Clifton Ford is almost certainly one of those hotels that you would choose for sightseeing or Christmas shopping. By Tube, Madame Tussaud’s is supposed to be about ten minutes away, as are the Tate Gallery, Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square. Oxford Street is within a few minutes’ walking distance and about 15-20 minutes’ walk away, you’ll also find either Regent’s Park or Hyde Park. The West End, Theatreland and Soho are also close by so the location is therefore potentially excellent for most recreational visitors to London.

In practice, however, things are a little different. I arrived in London by train (as I always do) and therefore needed to make my way to the hotel using the Underground. The hotel is not very close to any Tube stations, but is closest to either Baker Street or Hyde Park Corner – both are stated as being about 10 minutes’ walk away. Given that I had arrived at Euston, I therefore decided to try and get to Hyde Park Corner via the Central Line. This was a big mistake. It transpired that the Central Line was closed, so I had to either go back and go another way to Baker Street, get a bus (I know NOTHING about London buses), a taxi or walk the rest of the way. I opted for the latter, as the weather was fine, my luggage wasn’t particularly heavy and I didn’t think I had far to go. This was another big mistake, as the hotel was probably about half an hour’s walk from the Tube station. The map that was provided on the Jury’s web site was useless, and I actually ended up going out of my way. The entrance to the hotel is tucked away down what I would call a side street, and could easily have been missed. With hindsight, I would therefore recommend a taxi from your main line train station.

Needless to say, I was rather stressed, rather tired and rather flustered by the time I actually got to reception area. The receptionist got a bit of a shock when she asked if I were OK, as I simply congratulated her company on having the worst map I had ever downloaded. Nonetheless, she politely ignored me and checked me in as usual without further issues. [I did notice the chap next to me having a few problems, with a booking that appeared to have gone missing. I didn’t envy his position, when the assistant manager advised him that she couldn’t magic rooms out of thin air and he would have to find somewhere else to stay. Eek!]

ROOMS

The Clifton Ford appears to have been fairly recently refurbished as, although the building itself is fairly old, the décor was very new. The hotel has 127 classic (meaning “normal”) rooms, 69 executive (meaning “larger with fruit bowl”) rooms, 3 penthouse suites and 56 studio suites. As you can see, it therefore has quite a considerable capacity, but do make sure you request the appropriate room type when making a booking. I had one of the classic rooms, but would happily recommend it to others, as the standard of accommodation was excellent.

I have a bit of a thing about carpets in hotel rooms. They always look dirty, stained and seedy and if you have the misfortune to smell them (try dropping your mobile phone under the bed) you’ll probably never take your shoes off again. I was therefore delighted to see that my room had a nice new, CLEAN laminate floor. There was a small carpeted area immediately around the bed, but otherwise it was all hard floor. The décor was generally quite modern – not minimalist and brilliant white, but in subtle, pastel shades with plain wood furniture. The bed was a good size and there was plenty of room around it to move about and to sit in the armchair provided.

The desk was adequately sized to sit at and do some work and the television set could be rotated so that it could be seen throughout the room. It was sat on an enormous wooden monstrosity that I thought would contain a minibar, but didn’t and instead just seemed to be a large hollow shell. There was a wardrobe near the front door and floor to ceiling windows that were covered with large, heavy curtains that shut out every last inch of light.

The bathroom was of a fairly good size, but contained what is easily the most puzzling bath and shower combination I have ever seen. There were two knobs. One of them increased the temperature and one of them controlled the function. Turn the knob once to get a small shower to come on that you use in the bath to wash your hair. Turn the knob again to get the bath water to run. Turn the knob again to get the main shower to come on. Turn the knob again to get a combination of the bath and the small shower. It all sounds simple enough, except there were no instructions, so I just merrily kept turning the knob until something happened - all three came on. Whilst I had quickly worked out how to turn things on, turning things off didn’t seem quite so simple and it probably took me about eight attempts to get the bath water running on its own. To cap it all off, there wasn’t much hot water, so I ended up just having a shower. The bathroom also suffered from “Banger’s Door”. This is a fairly common condition whereby the proportions of a bathroom are such that you always end up banging one part of your body on the door. I went for the hat trick and simultaneously took out one hip, two elbows and a knee. Note to hotel designers: sliding bathroom doors on small bathrooms please.

FOOD

Doyle’s Garden restaurant is the main dining area, and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. I poked my head round the door, but was put off by the fact that there were several large parties of diners and I didn't really fancy sitting there on my own. The menu had a fairly good variety of dishes (pasta, meat dishes, salads etc) and was priced roughly around the £20 per head mark for three courses. The cooked breakfast was nice enough, although I took mine in my room. Whilst on the subject, I was EXTREMELY impressed with the room service, as I only waited about six or seven minutes for my food to arrive. I was so surprised by the prompt delivery that I was caught unawares and had to issue instructions from behind the bathroom door (I was in the shower at the time.) I didn’t have anything particularly adventurous, but my food was fresh, hot and tasty, so I had no complaints. Pricewise, room service is always expensive, so don’t be surprised if you have to pay £10 for a round of sandwiches and a beer like I did.

In terms of eating out, I noticed quite a few small bars and restaurants in the area. They were mainly privately owned although there were a few chains such as Pizza Express. Most of the restaurants seemed quiet and interesting, so you may well find eating out to be preferable.

OTHER SERVICES

Room service is available 24 hours and the bar seemed very popular indeed. The hotel has 9 conference suites and certainly seemed well equipped to handle formal functions. The Clifton Ford is also home to a Holmes Place health club. The Muscle Mary at the entrance advised me that the health club is renowned as being one of the better ones in London and I certainly couldn’t argue. A large, clean pool seemed to be a focal point and there was also a gym, sauna, whirlpool, dance studio and steam room. As the health club was free to guests, I decided to try out the steam room and was quietly sat there having an Imperial Leather moment (if you know what I mean) when a big, fat hairy Egyptian came in and displayed his wares. Needless to say, I left pretty sharpish but was otherwise quite impressed.

VALUE FOR MONEY

Jury’s are well known for offering various discounts and special offers and if you refer to their web site at www.jurysdoyle.com you’ll probably be able to find one. The advertised standard room rate is extortionately high at £222, but you’d have to be very foolish to pay this, as discounted rates below this are always available. I actually booked with an inclusive bed and breakfast rate of £69, which I’m sure you will agree offers outstanding value for money in the London hotel sector. It’s worth noting, for instance, that room only in a Travel Inn Capital costs around £75 - £80 and the facilities there couldn’t be compared to this. The average discounted prices seem to be between £80 and £110, which are obviously not as enticing but still fair in comparison to other London hotels. Added to that you also have the use of the health club, so it’s all pretty good really.

FINAL VERDICT

The Clifton Ford hotel is well fitted, has excellent facilities and offers excellent value for money. I liked the modern décor, and the lure of the health club was certainly very strong. Nonetheless, the location was, for me anyway, the only major problem with this hotel. Had I been a little more informed in advance, I’m sure I could have made things a little less traumatic for myself and got there more easily. I shall almost certainly be returning to the hotel later this year – I think I might have actually found my ideal London hotel.

Highly Recommended

Reservations:

Tel : 020 7486 6600
 

...less