Big Ben, Street Art, and Historical Drama: This Luxurious London Hotel Is All About Its City
Between Big Ben and the London Eye.
There are two things I specifically look forward to when staying at a hotel. One, the hotel breakfast, which always feels like an extravagance and also an excuse to eat a full day’s worth of calories in one sitting: fried sausage and eggs, plus some pastries, plus fruit and yogurt, and we may as well throw in a second cup of coffee and some waffles, too. The second is the swimming pool. Few things say “I’m living my best life” better than donning a white towel robe and sauntering down to do a few laps mid-afternoon.
At London Marriott Hotel County Hall, located right on the River Thames near many of the city’s foremost attractions, breakfast is a la carte, so gorging on three meals’ worth of delicacies before 11 AM isn’t possible here. But the pool is over 80 feet long — about halfway to an Olympic-sized pool — and every time I go, it’s empty.
A sense of space and a premium location
Photos: James Durston
A sense that you have your own space here permeates the hotel. It starts at the curbside where, after walking a short eight minutes from Waterloo station, I turn into a cavernous entryway with looming architecture that dampens noise and welcomes light and air. With the ice-cream slurping, London Eye-queuing tourist crowds behind me, it’s as if I’ve entered a secretive land of quiet calm and unhurried enjoyment.
Similarly, the rooms make the most of their previous lives as offices for the government. The building was opened in 1922 by King George V and Queen Mary, but it was Margaret Thatcher and Ken Livingstone who locked horns from these rooms in the 1980s, and the high ceilings and generously proportioned spaces that contained their battling political egos now provide roomy sanctuary for guests.
My room on the sixth floor is one of a new collection of rooms the hotel recently opened, with balconies overlooking the Thames and views of Westminster Bridge, Elizabeth Tower (often referred to as Big Ben), The Houses of Parliament, and many other iconic London buildings.
This premium location means prices can be high. The standard Deluxe room starts at around $530 per night, a Double Double family room starts at around $885 per night, and the Big Ben balcony suite — with roughly 1,600 square feet of space, two bedrooms, M Club executive lounge access, and postcard-worthy views of the river — comes in at around $3,450 per night.
That London connection is, of course, part of the DNA of the Marriott County Hall. Take the bathroom in my room — no bathtub but a large powerful shower, and its walls are covered in what looks like an ordinary illustrated map of the city but is actually the map from The Knowledge, the famously difficult London street knowledge test the city’s black cab drivers have to pass before they get their permit.
Or take the London County Hall theater nestled so close to the hotel that it may as well be part of the lobby. These days it’s the venue for the play Witness For The Prosecution by Agatha Christie, but in its former life it was the Council Chamber for the London City Council. The stage and seats are all preserved from its days as a working office of government.
A smorgasbord of dining options
The hotel’s connection to the city outside is best exemplified by Gareth Walker. By day, Walker is the restaurant manager for The Library, one of the hotel’s dining venues where you can enjoy breakfast and an excellent afternoon tea, but by night he becomes Slae, a graffiti artist who spends hours each week expressing himself in the urban street art gallery that is Leake Street Arches next door to the hotel.
“There are a few rules,” Walker says as he guides me into the tunnel that is London’s biggest legal graffiti wall. “The main one being if you paint over someone else’s piece, your work has to be better than theirs. If your piece stays up for a week or more, you’re lucky. But I just love it, being creative and being part of this community.”
He’s only been doing it for four years, but his art stands up to the best in the tunnel — for today at least.
Walker manages The Library, but Gillray’s Steakhouse is the bigger and more opulent restaurant inside the hotel. Gillray’s Bar specializes in gin with more than 100 types (the martinis are superb), and the steakhouse sources its beef from Thatcham’s, a second-generation family butcher in the Royal County of Berkshire. The Britishness of the beef is complemented with a wide selection of wines, many of which are also local.
“This is one of our most popular sparkling wines, and when you taste it, you’ll see why,” says Andrew Bloomer, the director of food and beverage at the hotel. “If I hadn’t told you it was from England, you could easily mistake this for a Champagne.”
This area of London is not short of dining options. The County Hall building itself houses several, from The Strings, an Italian and Spanish restaurant with live music, to Jeux Jeux Okonomiyaki, a Japanese restaurant specializing in Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki (a savory pancake), to Kitchen India. Venture a little further and you’ll find others, including Mamuśka, a Polish kitchen and bar that serves traditional Polish dumplings. Only order the dish of 10 if you haven’t eaten all day — these things are delicious, especially with half a pint of Polish beer, but filling. I ordered five, and that was plenty.
A world of nearby attractions
Photos: James Durston
Arguably, the real value of staying here is the location. This area of London, the South Bank (of the River Thames), was once industrial and dull, but it’s been turned into a cultural zone full of cafes, restaurants, buskers, galleries, and museums.
“I think of this as the ‘fun zone’ of London,” says Geoff Levett, a Blue Badge tour guide available for hire through the hotel. His walking tour opened my eyes not only to the obvious things to do here (Tate Modern, the British Film Institute, the South Bank Centre, and Royal Festival Hall are all within a 20-minute walk along the river from the hotel) but to the lesser-known corners and activities. One highlight: “mudlarking” down on the beaches of the river where, when the tide is low, you can hunt for pottery, pipes, and even oyster shells (it was a snack food in old London) from the 17th century.
Borough Market is another highlight, especially for foodies. I did a tour with Celia Brooks, a chef and author who appears to be on first-name terms with every vendor inside this gargantuan market. Her knowledge of food and this market is incredible. She asked each of our party for their favorite dish before the tour started and managed to find each dish once we were inside. That’s a testament not only to her inside knowledge of the place, not only to Borough Market’s variety of vendors, but also to London itself and its ability to accommodate, whatever your tastes.
Where you can get from the hotel is one half of what makes its location great. The other is how easy it is to get to the hotel. In fact, there are few hotels easier to get to if traveling into London. All you have to do is take the train to Waterloo Station, and it’s a 10-minute walk from there if you head toward the river. 
