The Queens Hotel - Keswick, Keswick

...be in Workington earlier in the week for business & decided to stay over the night before in Keswick about 35 minutes driving time away. I've driven through Keswick before but never had the chance to see this charming little town so I decided to find a hotel or guest house in the area.
Easier said than done, I contacted five separte privately owned guest houses either by phone or email, no one answered the phones so I left messages. Of the ...
...the following day with nothing to offer, one answered my phone message three days later & the other three, well who knows, what an incentive to stay there!

I contacted www.laterooms.com who found me a room at the Queens Hotel in the centre of Keswick for a modest £40.00 for one night including breakfast.

On the day I travelled from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, entered the hotels postcode on my sat nav & set off on a glorious ... more

I needed to be in Workington earlier in the week for business & decided to stay over the night before in Keswick about 35 minutes driving time away. I've driven through Keswick before but never had the chance to see this charming little town so I decided to find a hotel or guest house in the area.
Easier said than done, I contacted five separte privately owned guest houses either by phone or email, no one answered the phones so I left messages. Of the five I contacted, one came back to me by email the following day with nothing to offer, one answered my phone message three days later & the other three, well who knows, what an incentive to stay there!

I contacted www.laterooms.com who found me a room at the Queens Hotel in the centre of Keswick for a modest £40.00 for one night including breakfast.

On the day I travelled from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, entered the hotels postcode on my sat nav & set off on a glorious sunny day for Keswick to arrive for around 4.30 pm.
As I arrived in the centre of Keswick looking for the hotel (Main Street) the sat nav took me to another street stating 'you have reached your destination'. I couldn't see the Queens Hotel & cursed this stupid sat nav, I then spent the good part of 30 minutes driving round the narrow but charming streets of the town looking for the hotel but always being taken back to the same spot.

Then I realised, the hotel is on a street which is only for pedestrians & can only be accessed by taxi, the sat nav was right all along, it was taken me to the end of the street (minus a street name) with the hotel out of view. As I turned another corner to confirm my suspicions, I stumbled upon the Queens Hotel Garage & quickly drove in.

The garage is the only access by car to the hotel & luckily for me from seven spare spaces available there was one left! Despite being a lovely sunny day it was pitch black in the garage, can't they switch on lights in here? I fumbled through the boot to find my luggage & followed the alley way into the tradesman's entrance of the hotel.

No 'Welcome to the Queens Hotel' signs here, just a reminder that the parking space I have just used will cost me £6.00 & that they will take no responsibility of any low life stealing the contents of my car. Maybe that is why they don't switch on the lights, any thief going in there would be fumbling about getting no where!

As I climbed the stairs to reception I was impressed with the décor of the hotel, as it was only 3-star I wasn't expecting a clone of the Ritz Hotel but I was still impressed.
However, I was less than impressed with the girl on reception; she made a demented Dalek look friendly. She mumbled her instructions to me & I had to get here to repeat herself so many times.

I asked 'Can I get an evening meal in the hotel?' She bluntly replied 'You'll find information in your room'.
'What time do you serve breakfast? She said 'You'll find information in your room.
I didn't ask her anything else thinking she had been programmed to say the same thing for every question. I grabbed my key & headed for my room.

Room 101 was just for one person & although clean it was like stepping back to the early 1980s. Part of the room had a wardrobe & drawers reminiscent of a 1980s MFI bedroom suite in white with the same quality of construction. It took two hands & considerable force to open the wardrobe doors; their magnetic catches were extremely strong.
The other side of the room had furniture in a ghastly 1970s dark brown, not real wood but look-a-like wood. The beige coloured kettle & beige coloured alarm clock / radio all had that 1980s look.
The room also had a 1990s style TV but at least it had numerous channels which I could watch sitting on a 1960s style cane chair.
The room also had a hair dryer, yellow pages & phone book, tea, coffee including decaff but no biscuits.

Still, the room was quite charming compared to the en-suite bathroom. I switched on the light & it sounded like the bearings had worn out on the extractor fan as it sounded like the 5.15pm train from Kings Cross to Peterborough. Should I decide to visit the toilet during the night it would have to be done in darkness as the fan would waken the whole hotel & once it was switched on it didn't cut off for 30 thundering minutes.

The bathroom had a bright red carpet (ugh!!) a tatty looking 1950s style mirror with matching sink. The hot tap supplied a good force of water but the cold tap was no more than a constant drip, I reckon I could fill a glass in the time it takes to watch an episode of Emmerdale Farm! Come to think of it, I would rather spend half an hour of my precious time filling the glass with water that suffering Emmeradale Farm!
The bath was chipped, the toilet seat badly needed replacing & the lighting was a bit dim. I was also less than impressed with the 'vacant / engaged' sign on the bathroom door; it looked like a relict from British Rail circa 1960s & a bit out of place in a hotel room.

As the receptionist stated I had information in my room about the hotel, it was pretty basic (like the hotel) but I could get an iron board from reception (no mention of an iron), reminder about the car park, a menu which looked like an all day affair & was less than impressive & I could get champagne for breakfast for £26.00.

My view from the hotel was the roof of the dining room and a plastic container for collecting water from the drain pipes.

I decided to eat out for two reasons, their menu wasn't particularly good & I wanted to walk around Keswick on this lovely June evening. Directly across the road from the hotel was a great pub for food (The Kings Arms) & afterwards I enjoyed a rather pleasing perambulation around Keswick.

Back to my cell (sorry room!) later on & I have to say that just I was beginning to regret staying here when things started to improve. The bed was comfortable & the hotel was very quiet that night. In the morning I was taken aback by the breakfast room. It was bright & airy with the sun shining through the glass roof.
Service staff were efficient & friendly; there was a choice of buffet service, cooked breakfast or both. The buffet supplied a good selection of cereals, yogurt, fruit including honey dew melon, juices, preserves & butter.
Cooked options were the usual English cooked breakfast with toast, tea, coffee or champagne. However even at peak times I as only one of three people there that morning. In fact I got the distinct impression that there was very few people staying at the hotel at all. When I booked in at 5pm the night before the receptionist told me I was the last person to book in that night.
I get the impression this hotel would cater mainly for tourists & business customers would few & far between.

Checking out was quick & efficient & there was no charge for the car park. Despite its dated room & grumpy receptionist I actually quite liked it in the end. Would I go back? Well car parking is difficult, it wouldn't be my first choice but I've stayed in worse places. 

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