New Road Hotel

The hotel has 79 air-conditioned guest rooms, which all have comfortable Hypnos beds, a large 49″ flatscreen telly and an en suite bathroom with a rainfall shower. Some of the rooms are small and the work desk doubles as a dressing table making it impractical for doing actual work but the larger loft rooms on the top floor have a few extras like spa baths and spacious balconies. The rooms do not have their own tea and coffee making facilities, and instead, there are free vending machines on each floor where you can get unlimited tea, coffee and hot chocolate.

The hotel is decorated to highlight the building’s industrial heritage and all the rooms feature exposed brickwork.

Much like a hostel, the New Road Hotel has social zones located throughout the hotel, which add to the atmosphere and also give you more options for places to hang out and get to know your fellow guests. These include a room with a pool table on the first floor, a library on the second floor, an ironing station on the third floor and a yoga and fitness room on the fourth floor. These areas make a big difference to the guest experience, particularly the library, which is a great workspace for those who find the in-room work desks a tad impractical.

The hotel also has its own co-working space plus a bar and a restaurant headed by a celebrity chef. Although it is part of a chain, Mr White’s English Chophouse is a step up from your bland hotel restaurant and its menu features Marco Pierre White’s take on traditional English cuisine with a French twist.

The New Road Hotel is a nice concept. It offers the character of a boutique hotel and the social atmosphere of a hostel at a reasonable price (well, reasonable for London anyway) by cutting out some of the in-room facilities that you may find in other hotels. It is a similar concept to Manchester’s Cow Hollow Hotel but in London’s East End.

Although it is not the most attractive part of London (the buildings across the road are still boarded up and awaiting redevelopment), its proximity to The City of London means that the area is gentrifying and there is an increasing number of interesting places to eat and drink opening up in the neighbourhood surrounding the hotel.

It is only a three-minute walk from the Royal London Hospital Museum and under a 10-minute walk to vibrant Brick Lane and it is also around a 12-minute walk to the edge of The City of London. Many points of interest in The City are also within walking distance including the Bank of England Museum, the Gherkin, the Monument, the Sky Garden, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, which are all under a half-hour walk from the hotel.

Whitechapel station is a five-minute walk from the hotel. The station is in zone two and it is the only station where Underground trains run above Overground services. It is served by the District and Hammersmith & City lines and it takes six minutes to get to Monument and 17 minutes to Westminster with trains running every 3–4 minutes and six minutes to Liverpool Street or 15 minutes to King’s Cross & St Pancras International with trains running every 10 minutes. Whitechapel is also served by Overground trains on the former East London line with trains running every 3–4 minutes and the Elizabeth line also runs through Whitechapel with fast trains into central London and onwards to Heathrow Airport.