Has anyone stayed at this hotel? Ther're Id-ing it as "sympathetically" renovated. Interesting choice of words. <BR>Which tube stop is near this hotel? Can you give me directions to this hotel from the tube stop?<BR>Thanks for any info. Maureen

Yes, I have stayed there. Before it got renovated in the mid-90s it was a really grotty, super-budget dump. Gloucester Road. Exit the Gloucester Road tube station onto Gloucester Road, go left to corner of Gloucester Road and Cromwell Road, cross both streets, proceed east on Cromwell Road a short block to Queens Gate Gardens, turn left and the hotel will be on the left just past Atherstone Mews.

I stayed there since the renovation. I don't understand the term "sympathetic". I thought it was fine. The bathroom was terrific. The location was excellent. It was not a dump but it wasn't plush. I'd stay again.

Stayed there a week last February--it was great Room was well kept with TV, tea and coffee maker, quiet street, great bathroom with shower and tub and the breakfast was the "full English" kind. We felt it was a great place, convenient and well run. The Glocester station gave us access to virtually anywhere and it was a snap to get there from Heathrow. Really it was a very reasonably priced hotel which was an asset during our stay. Have no idea what "sympathetic" might mean. Cheers.

I've always assumed that "sympathic" in the case of renovations means that it was done with an eye to keeping the integrity of the home/hotel/room. In other words, they'd be kind to it--wouldn't take a Victorian-era townhome and turn it into a 1970's psychodelic mish-mash, but rather "feel" for what the home needs--perhaps cozy and overstuffed furniture, the right wallpaper, etc.

Thanks for the info. It's reported to be a 4 star hotel. Well, so is Harrington Hall. Which would be a better stay for the dollar?<BR>I don't think The Harrington includes breakfast.<BR>Does the Strathmore offer both "Continental" and "Full" breakfast with your stay?<BR>Maureen<BR>

we stayed there about 2 years ago..hopefully that was before the renovations, because we moved out after 2 nights and would have left sooner if we could have gotten another room somewhere. It was fusty, musty and none too clean. They did have a continental breakfast though.<BR><BR>The main thing I didn't like, was our room was at one end of a dead end hall with fire doors at the other end, so a fire in the middle section would have left you trapped with the 3rd story window being the only escape. I've been in 1 hotel fire before and exits are the first thing I look for!

I hope I didn't confuse with my reference to this hotel formerly being a dump. The renovated hotel opened as the Strathmore in 1996. It had been closed a number of years prior and was NOT called the Strathmore during its earlier budget hotel incarnation. In 1996, when we stayed, it called itself a 4 star hotel at 3 star prices. This was not true then, in terms of service and housekeeping, but that may have changed.<BR><BR>Incidentally, the reason the hotel is called the Strathmore is that it was once the London home of the late Queen Mother's grandfather, the Earl of Strathmore.

Thanks for clarifying ron..we must have been there AFTER the renovations were made then, as it was either fall of '99 or mar of 2000 that we stayed and it was not nice, no way!!

Jody,<BR>How did you get out of your reservation? was there a charge?<BR>Maureen

No charge..we just said we were leaving..would have left the first day but had to wait 2 days for our new hotel, but we did tell them at once we would be leaving on the friday