The Cadogan Hotel

A romantic weekend spoilt

by TripAdvisor Member DDG1

My wife and I have a 1 year old baby. Both Grandparents live in Dublin while we live in London. We flew my Mother over to look after the baby while we went for a night away. We booked the hotel through a web agency specifically so that we were close to a Sloane Square restaurant. We phoned the hotel direct as well just to check availability and the safety of using one of their booking agency partners - both were positive answers.

We arrived at 3pm nice and early. There was an apparent problem with the booking. They had booked a single room - even though they had the booking under MR & MRS! It took them 1/2 an hour to tell us this and that we were being shifted to another hotel - a 1/2 hour taxi journey away. I told them we had specifically booked this hotel for the location, but they didn't seem to care.

By the time we got to our room in our 'tourist' hotel in the other end of town it was 5pm. The Cadogan hotel didn't offer a drink while waiting - I had to ask was the drink free for the inconvenience. We had to get a 1/2 hour cab journey back to our restaurant and another 1/2 hour home.

We live 45 mins door to door from the hotel, so excluding this our romantic night out consisted of 3 hours of time wasted.

Great Small Hotel

by TripAdvisor Member timjax9

Stayed at the Cadogan for 4 nights in September. Nice small hotel in great location near Hyde Park, Harrods and other upscale shopping on Sloane St. Service was excellent thanks to Richie! Concierge also gave us 2 good restaurant recommendations. London is EXPENSIVE and at USD$300+ a night the Cadogan is actually a value.

Waste of a weekend, time and money

by TripAdvisor Member Aoifes

I wouldn't recommend the Cadogan as a place to stay in London. The only positive thing I can say about it is that the location is terrific.

I checked into the hotel on Friday 17th November (for a two night stay), dropped to the door by a driver who had picked me up at Heathrow. The staff looked bored and were anything but friendly. The receptionist checked me in and accompanied me to my room, which was on the fourth floor. My initial reaction was that the room was tiny. Ok - standard double rooms in a City such as London can be small - but this took this biscuit.The decor too was very tatty and dated. I commented to the receptionist that it was very warm... her answer was to open the window. Note windows in hotels only open a few centimetres, for safety reasons.

My partner met me at the hotel an hour or so later and he too instantly commented on how hot the room was. We could see that this was a recurring problem as the room had a built in airconditioning unit (which only blew out hot air), a stand alone fan and fan in the ceiling. My boyfriend told me that as it was an old building there were probably pipes in the walls increasing the heat, coupled with the fact that we were on the top floor.

We went out for dinner that evening and came back to the room (we had left all fans on), but were knocked out by the heat. We called reception and asked if it would be possible to be moved, but they had no other rooms. The concierge however came up to the room with an air conditioning unit for us. This quickly solved the problem, but it was unbelieveably noisy!!

The next morning we got up for breakfast, which was ok - the service was appauling - we had to ask for everything twice and the food was cold. The continental buffet was very average. After breakfast we asked if there was a possibility of changing rooms and thankfully they were able to accomodate us.

We were moved to room 106 which was a far more spacious room with working air conditioning. The bed too was far superior. My only compalint with this room would be that we could hear very loud music and shouting from next door, into the early hours of the morning.

In a nutshell, I would never return to this hotel - it is a complete let down and I was really surprised to read such good reviews about it here!!! Maybe I just had a bad experience, but I find that really hard to believe....

Stuffy but good

by TripAdvisor Member bspoll

I like the Codogan almost despite myself. It is in a good location, not great for kids but reasonably near the park and the shops are all the expensive ones only but the its just a little bit ... stuffy . they still serve afternoon tea wearing tuxedos . We moved in here as we hated the Myhotel so much so in those cirumstances it was pleasant but I wont go back there

Can't Keep the Family Away!

by TripAdvisor Member BrogansB4TheGame

I have stayed in the Cadogan several times, but this was the first time with the family of 3 young children. We had stayed in Windsor the night before in an Awful hotel and on a whim I decided to surprise the family and book us in here. From the moment we met the Concierge on arrival to the next evening when he got us a taxi, the whole stay was absolutely fantastic. The rooms [beside each other]] were spacious and comfortable. The breakfasts were expansive and appealed to 5 different tastes. The service was wonderful. It is pricey, but worth every penny/cent/dime for a special occasion!

Not what it was...

by TripAdvisor Member Jones1973

I used to stay at The Cadogan very regularly a few years ago. I had to go to London in December and decided to stay there again. Unfortunately I didn't know the hotel had changed so much and all the atmosphere was gone. I'll try something different next time.

Great Staff.

by TripAdvisor Member desie

Myself and my wife stayed here for three nights last Feburary. From the moment we stepped into the hotel, we knew it was something special. We were met by Richie form Concierge. we cant give enough praise about this guy, From the moment we arrived to the moment we left he sorted everything out for us. Dinner Reservations ( all Spot On ), theatre tickets ( When there was none to be Found ). He seemed genuinly interestered in our stay. A rare thing these days in Hotels.

Our Room was nice and very spacious overlooking the Park. Harodds was only around the corner, so location was super too.

Breakfast was good with a lot of choice and the cooked breakfast was fresh and hot.

Many thanks to the night porters who welcomed us home each night after dinner. Nothing was to much trouble for them.

We will defenitly be back. the perfect place for a weekend break. A little pricey, but the location is worth it. I believe the hotel is located very near where Jose mourinho lives. We did not see him this time though !

it never stopped raining

by TripAdvisor Member britishcamp

The reception staff are first class,hotel just being refurbished,sack the designer,too much battleship grey,food and drink really overpriced and not up to the standard one would expect.Room clean television not working, shower,worth seeing,just to see what you can squeeze into such a tiny space.
Close Harrods .
On the plus side the reception staff are really proffessional.
Far too expensive.
j.cooke

Statues and monuments

by Spincat

"The men (and camels) of the Imperial Camel Corps"

This statue remembers the men of the Imperial Camel Corps, British, New Zealand, Australian and Indian who died in the 1914-18 war. It is a small and sad sculpture next to a little cafe in Victoria Embankment Gardens.

I often stop here on my way back from a trip to Central London - it is my 'cool down' spot after braving the crowds and the noise.

This is a tiny green space but a fascinating one. I don't much like formal municipal flower arrangements as a rule, but these are exquisite and exotic.

The cafe ( behind the memorial) is good - of the British 'gready spoon' type. There's a good bagel shop near the entrance to the gardens if yo prefer to sit on a bench in the park.
Right next door to the gardens is 'Gordon's Wine bar' a dark old fashioned place with lots of atmosphere.

"Oscar Wilde"

Maggie Hambling is one of my favourite artitsts. This is called 'A Conversation with Oscar Wilde'. He is rising out of a granite sarcophagus on whihc you can sprawl if you are brave or drunk enough. A famous Oscar Wilde quote is engraved on the statue : "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

You'll find it in Adelaide Street, near Trafalgar Square and St Martin in the Fields and opposite Charing Cross Station.

Oscar Wilde spent much of his adult life in London:

-He lived at 34 Tite Street in Chelsea with his wife and sons

-St James Theatre in King St saw first run of 'the Importance of Being Earnest'

-The famous London club the Albermarle, chain of events began here that led to his downfall

- I think it was in the 'fin de siecle' restaurant, Kettners, where his lover Bosie fired a pistol at a chandelier (kettners is now a rather glamorous pizza place in Soho)

- he was arrested at the Cadogan Hotel and tried at the Old Bailey.

"Cleopatra's Needle"

An Egyptian obelisk or ben-ben, known as Cleopatra's Needle and was made to honour Pharaoh Tuthmosis III in 1460 BCE. Tuthmosis III is drawn as a sphinx and there hieroglyphs on three sides of the column.

The British wanted something imposing to commemorate the British victory over Napoleon, sixty-three years earlier and nabbed this mere trifle from Alexandria. The public subscribed £15,000 to ship it over to London and it sailed off in 1877, nearly sinking en route.

The obelisk was damaged by sharpnel from teh first ever air raid on London in 1917 and the damage is visible today though some restoration work was carried out in 2005.

"A Traveller's tomb"

Now a diversion to a really wonderful VT site TheWanderingCamel
for a look at the extraordinary tomb of the traveller Richard Burton at Mortlake. A favourite page and a favourite Vt member.

"Dennis Severs house, 18 Folgate Street"

A living monument. More soon - meanwhile visit:
http://www.dennissevershouse.co.uk/