But it has got me thinking about the nature of hotels and the role they play on the urban landscape. Most London commuters will probably walk past at least one hotel on their way to work every day. Yet it is a strange quirk of city life that such ubiquitous landmarks go largely unnoticed by most of its inhabitants.

The obvious explanation is that those who live in London don’t NEED hotels in London (post-work drinks and extra-marital affairs notwithstanding). Consequently most of the city’s hotels exist somewhere in the back of our consciousness, like a distant memory of a childhood class mate. We know they’re around somewhere, we just don’t quite know where, or what they look like.

But there’s another reason too. Despite the competitiveness of the hotel industry, most hotels remain delightfully understated in appearance. Instead of shouting from the rooftops, they gently co-exist in perfect aesthetic harmony with the landscape around them, distinctive from offices and apartments only by a fluttering flag or bold lettering on their facades depicting their name.

So what ARE the oldest hotels in London? Well I’ve done some digging and found out for you. And now you know of their historical importance, perhaps you’ll want to visit them yourself. But a word of warning – they’ve probably changed quite a bit over the years.

Listed in the time-honoured tradition of third to first, here they are for your perusal:

The Great Western Hotel (now the Hilton Paddington)

Established: 1854

Architect: Philip Charles Hardwick

Situated next door to Paddington Station – which opened the same year as the hotel – and nearby to London’s famous Hyde Park, the original Great Western boasted Victorian architecture, an Art Deco-inspired lobby and white and sand coloured marble floors. The hotel underwent major refurbishment during the 1930s, before being entirely rebranded at the turn of the next century in 2002 when it was renamed the Hilton Paddington.

The Grosvenor Hotel
Established: 1861

Architect: J. T. Knowles

The Grosvenor hotel is located just a few yards from Victoria train station and has retained several of its original features, including its French Renaissance roof. The hotel has undergone several changes in ownership over the years, and even had the word ‘Grosvenor’ removed from its title under the stewardship of Thistle Hotels in the 1980s. Its original moniker was restored in 2008. The hotel also boasts the distinction of being the first in London to feature elevators, which at that time were powered by the city’s water pressure.

And the winner is…Brown’s Hotel

Established: 1837

Located in Albemarle Street, just off Piccadilly, Brown’s is officially the oldest hotel in London. Opened by 1837 by Mr & Mrs Brown who were servants to the famous poet Lord Byron, Brown quickly gathered a reputation for hosting the great and the good from every cultural sphere imaginable. Alexander Graham Bell made the first ever telephone call from the hotel, both Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt were regular guests and stayed here on their honeymoons and it was while residing at the hotel that Rudyard Kipling wrote “The Jungle Book”.  Today Brown’s remains one of the most popular boutique hotels in London, both for its contemporary appeal and its enduring heritage. For a more comprehensive history of the hotel, plus photos in its modern guise, check out this website.

But it can be hard to find information about this, especially for visitors to the city.  London Underground has signs on Piccadilly Line trains encouraging passengers to get off at Holborn or Leicester Square and walk to Covent Garden.  But this is simply to tackle overcrowding, and they don’t encourage walking anywhere else.  I suppose it’s not really in their interests!

One problem is that the tube map is designed for clarity rather than geographical accuracy, so it distorts the distances between stations.  Rodcorp has added lines to the map showing all the stops that are less than 500 metres apart on the ground.  This is a good reference which alerts you, at a glance, to where it would probably be quicker to walk.  

If you’re looking for more detailed information about how long it takes to walk between stations, you can thank students at Central Saint Martin’s College.  They have timed all the journeys in Zone 1 on foot and mapped the results.  To achieve these times, you need to be going along at a brisk pace rather than having a leisurely stroll!  But sometimes the beauty of walking is that you get to see and enjoy things you would have missed if you’d stayed underground.  You experience and understand more of the city, and get to know it better.

Getting fit is another good reason to walk.  There are clear health benefits from keeping active and hopping off a couple of stops early each day could help you lose weight gained from those little excesses.  A man can burn off the calories in a pint of beer by walking between Waterloo and Bermondsey, and a woman can burn off the calories from a glass of wine by walking from Waterloo to Leicester Square.

If this seems like a good incentive to walk, you might like to consult the tube map drawn up by PruHealth.  It shows the number of steps between stations, calculated by volunteers wearing pedometers.  To cut our risk of getting strokes, heart disease and cancer, the British Heart Foundation says we should walk 10,000 steps a day, so how many could you clock up if you got off the tube?

If you’re unsure about directions you can check your route on Walk It  before you leave the house.  For those who are planning to foot it around a bit, I’d recommend getting a folded paper pocket-sized map of the centre of the city.  You can buy them for a pound or so at most tube stations and it’s much easier than lugging around a big A-Z.

Q. Can I get a list of all TubeHotels pages and banners for my site

A. Yes we have a list of all the pages you can link as well as various banners on the TubeHotels affiliate blog. http://www.tubehotels.com/blog/affiliates/banners/

Q. How many sales will I make

A. Our conversion rate depends on the quality of traffic that is sent across, the TubeHotels site converts at 4.5%, this is very good as the average travel industry conversion rate is 1.5%.

Q. How do I track my referrals and sales

A. We have built an in house tracking system which allows you to view all referrals, searches and sales in real time, this can be accessed by siging into the TubeHotels back office

Q. LateRooms pay me 5% commission on bookings, why should I change to TubeHotels who pay 3%.

A. LateRooms are a great company, this is why we include them on our site. We also compare 8 other companies and we sell lots of hotels through them also. Comparing 9 hotel companies gives:

1. More hotels to choose from
2. More availabilty on required hotels
3. More prices on hotels, getting the user the best price available
4. More bookings for your site. The TubeHotels site converts at 4.5%, beating the average travel industry conversion rate of 1.5%.
5. All LateRooms hotels are included in our searches.
6. Location based search and map. The user can see exactly where they will be staying and also how far they are from the nearest Tube station.

For example, linking your page on Covent Garden to our Covent Garden page will produce more sales than if you linked to our homepage. It may sound like a small and easy task for a user to move from our homepage to our Covent Garden page but why make users work – make it as easy as possible for them!

Here is a spreadsheet of all hotels on TubeHotels.com.

And here is a list of London Underground, DLR and train stations.

Link to the pages in these spreadsheets from your website and we will credit sales to your affiliate account.

TubeHotels station list

In the latest Michelin guide Quilon is one of five London restaurants to be awarded their first Michelin stars. Quilon is only the fifth Indian restaurant in the capital to win the honour and is the only South Indian restaurant in the whole of the UK.

Compare prices and book rooms at 51 Buckingham Gate or read more information on Quilon restaurant. 

Thousands of tickets have already been sold for the multi award-winning motor show which after a long spell in Birmingham has finally returned to London after 30 years. The two week motoring extravaganza expects to attract over half a million people, making it the biggest show in the UK.

When visiting London for the motor show, you could stay in hotels near London Excel. However, there isn’t much in the way of entertainment / facilities in Docklands so TubeHotels recommends staying in central London accommodation and travelling to the show each day on the tube.

For more information on the show, visit www.britishmotorshow.co.uk

Sofitel London Heathrow is instantly recognisable by its five towering steel and glass atriums, and will become a spectacular addition to Heathrow’s skyline. Focusing on the concept of ‘the gateway to the world’ as the design inspiration, KCA International Designers (who have previously designed interiors for Burj Al Arab, Dubai and Four Seasons Hotel, Hong Kong) will embrace the theme of Continent and Country throughout the property. Antarctica will take the central focus in the hotel’s reception areas with a dramatic water fountain centrepiece, cascading out from a mirrored ceiling onto floodlit ice blocks, funnelling refractive light on the surrounding surfaces. The adjoining public areas will carry through the continents theme to encompass Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.

The hotel’s four room categories include Classic, Superior, Luxury and Suites, all complete with the signature Sofitel MyBed, ensuring guests the most comfortable night’s sleep possible. Triple-glazed windows will guarantee absolute silence throughout bedrooms, with many rooms offering commanding views of the airport and internal gardens. Each room will be individually styled with contemporary aesthetics appealing to both business and leisure travellers. The hotel will feature no fewer than 52 Suites ranging from Sofitel, Prestige, Opera to the presidential grandeur of the Imperial Suite – measuring 165 square meters.

As soon as this hotel can be booked on TubeHotels.com we will let you know! In the meantime, compare rates and choose another Heathrow airport hotel.