Colonnade Hotel

Went for afternoon tea on a Groupon deal and was generally very happy with the deal. We had a nice afternoon slot, the food was tasty and there was enough of it, and the champagne was lovely too. The afternoon tea was served in a room which is in the basement, so I wouldn’t recommend it on a sunny day, as you do feel down in the dungeons a bit, but having said that its still a nice room. Very easily accessible from Warwick avenue tube.

I had tea here with some friends last night at 6pm. The value was great since we had a Groupon and the tea came with a glass of champagne (that was VERY good). The food was good, and the sandwiches were yummy, but the ambiance definitely felt like «hotel dining». Typical room next to a bar in a hotel like atmosphere. We were one of three groups of guests on a Tuesday night, and the only group there for tea. I don’t think I’d go back though, as there are so many other locations to try for tea in London and this one was just ok, but the company was great :)

Found this hotel by chance and am so glad we did. We had a wonderful holiday week in quiet Little Venice. Location is perfect, right across the street from the tube, a good pub and nice restaurants nearby. But the hotel itself was just perfect — very friendly and helpful staff, great restaurant (full English breakfast is a keeper!), homey feel to the whole place, clean, very spacious rooms, good price, eccentric and unique array of rooms, lots of character (in the very best ways) very family friendly. We travelled as a couple with our 12-​year old son and he loved it too. We’ll be back.

My wife & I had a great trip here. Staff was very friendly & it was located in nice central area right near a tube station. I would definitely recommend staying here when visiting London.

Had a fantastic week-​long stay here while in London on business and working at my office near Paddington. The property is very accessible, and convenient by Tube, taxi, or a leisurely stroll.
Very nice breakfast options in the morning, all of them tempting enough to put you off any diet that you may think you should be following. The room itself was well-​appointed, with an extremely luxurious bed that I wound up spending a lot of time in, as I succeeded in catching a very nasty cold while putting in too many hours at the office.
The hotel staff were stars in taking care of me. One call to the Front Desk got them into action, and a doctor was summoned to my room within a matter of hours, who then saw to getting me onto antibiotics which the hotel staff picked up for me. Extending my stay wasn’t a problem, and I happily enjoyed convalescing with tea and cricket on the telly until I was well-​enough to fly back home.
The Colonnade is more than a hotel — it could really be a residence of sorts. Give this little boutique a try, and you may be put off ever staying at a chain hotel in London again.

Great cute hotel — boutique neighbourhood hotel. It is quite pricey for what it is. The room is clean but not modern and many rooms have double bed which could be a shock to American traveller, especially when travelling as a couple.
Overall, great location, friendly staff but pricy for facilities and lack of points you can accumulate…

Great hotel that is very close to Warwick Ave underground station. The neighborhood is wonderful with lots of great restaurants in the immediate area. The rooms are nice and clean.

The Colonnade Hotel is well located boutique hotel in Maida Vale in West London. Its conveniently located about 3 minutes from the Warwick Avenue tube station (on the Bakerloo Line) and about a 15 minute walk from Paddington Station (fantastic if you want to take the Heathrow Express into central London). Maida Vale is a very residential London borough, with some cute shops and just far enough out of Central London to feel relaxing but close enough to walk anywhere.
It is a very cute hotel, having recently undergone some refurbishment while staying true to its roots (think high ceilings, narrow stairways, deep plush carpets, crown mouldings, etc). It has one of the oldest operating lifts (‘elevators’) in the area, so don’t be disturbed by the jolts and shakes as you slowly ascend up to the 3 floor!
Now, all these praises aside, I rate this hotel a ²⁄₅ due to the resident cat, who is very comfortable sleeping on the couches in the reception area and rubbing customer legs. This is all quite cute, except that there was no advance communication that this cat exists, and for those of us with severe cat allergies, this creates an extremely negative experience. I spent the entire stay wheezing and sniffling — a strong reminder to confirm with any reservation whether there are resident feline friends roaming about.
Cat people — you’ll love it here. Dog people — look elsewhere.
–
L

This is a really sweet boutique hotel. Its location is Little Venice — a really bucolic and residential part of London. The staff is accommodating and the rooms are large by London standards. It would be hard to imagine my staying anywhere else.

The entire time I was on the Tube headed to our hotel I had a Duffy song stuck in my head. Since our destination was the Warwick Avenue stop, I was being profoundly annoying and humming/​singing (softly) the song with the same title. We were the only people on this particular car so I was okay with the embarrassment. Anyway…
The Colonnade is a short walk from the Tube in lovely Little Venice. It’s a small boutique hotel which was undergoing some renovations when I stayed there. Despite that, it was still nice. The lobby was pretty and had a beautiful Christmas tree in center. The manager who checked us in was super nice and we had chocolates and a bottle of wine in our room. Our room, a suite, was excellent. It was spacious, had a queen sized bed, and fainting couch. My only issue was the shower, hence the lack of five stars. It kept sputtering water from base and due to it being the holiday season no maintenance staff was on hand to fix it. That was a bit annoying. The hotel did nothing about this other than say sorry, it’s a holiday, even though my stay was ¹²⁄₂₈ and ¹²⁄₂₉. Oh well.
All in all, it was a nice hotel that I am sure will be even nicer after the renovations are completed.

The Colonade ranks among my favourites of all the hotels in the world. I lived out of a suitcase for half of my life and the service, the rooms, and the decorations are all world class. For those of you who have seen the film «Room with a View’, this is what you will experience minus the countryside, after all it is in London.
The first time I stayed at the Colonade was in August of 1975, back then it only cost 35 pounds per night for a suite. It is considerably more now but oh so worth it. The only excuse I have for staying somewhere else when I am in London is that they are fully booked. Forget the Savoy, the Dorchester, or Claridges; they have nothing on the Colonade. Original works of art grace the walls of the suites and the décor is hybrid Victorian/​Edwardian. Royalty does not live much better, when staying here, I feel like a Duke or a Count. They even have private terraces for the rooms. The service provides the role model for all other small hotels to strive towards.
A pet peeve of mine at many hotels is lack of lighting. You get two lamps with pitifully low powered light bulbs. Not so here. It may be a bit of an exageration, but sometimes I feel like I am falling over lamps. No matter where you are in your suite, more than sufficient lighting is available to illuminate what ever it is you have to do.
Breakfast is a heart stopping special and captures the essence, and much more, of a true English breakfast. Do not forget to bring your Lipitor because holding back is impossible. It goes beyond wanting to eat, it is so good you absolutely have to eat.
You never know who you are going to bump into while entering or leaving the Colonade. It is a favourite of the more eccentric public figures on the planet which is quite accurate considering that mathematician Alan Turing was born in this building. It was a hospital then. The elevator is super funky and as old as the hills.
During the seventies there was a London block called Bristol Gardens that was crawling with hippies, musicians, and artists. Bands like Hawkwind, Motorhead, Mott the Hoople all hung their hats there. It was three blocks from Warrington Cres. There was a lovely café that served fabulous vegetarian food on this street. Unfortunately, these properties started to be valued at several million pounds each and the hippies moved out. 1970s London truly was a magical era. I spent several years as a student. London was cheap for North Americans back then, not now.
While visiting, check out the Bond Restaurant which is owned by the same operators, the Eton Group. It is one of the few places on the planet you can purchase 40 to 50 year old vintage ports for a price that is less that you will pay in a boutique wine store in North America, not bad for a restaurant. Port and Stilton is a lovely way to end an evening in the West End. Heck, it is a close to perfect way to spend an evening. Try the 1963 Crofts at 250 Pounds. Port does not get any better than this. If you can find it, you will pay about $ 900.00 in North America.
They have some to die for great vintages of French classified growth red wines, all considerably less than NA boutique prices. I have only visited Bond’s for the wine so I will not review the restaurant individually. You can also purchase a 90 pointer plus wine for as little as 30 pounds.

I am not a fan of generic chain hotels, so I, of course, love the Colonnade in London’s Little Venice.
It’s off the quiet Warwick Avenue tube station on the Bakerloo Line (one quick stop from Paddington, but a world away). There are a nice supply of shops (food and other) behind the Colonnade on Formosa Street, and the Maida Vale «downtown» area is a short walk (or one tube stop) away. The area is extremely quiet and safe… all you see are well-​heeled locals around the Colonnade.
The Colonnade itself is truly unique. Inside, every room is different. I’ve stayed in a smaller room below grade and was completely content, and I’ve also stayed in one of the huge upper floor suites. And, when I say huge, it’s American huge… almost like a nice flat (sans the kitchen). Nice furniture. Extremely clean and functional bathroom.
The beds are beyond scrumptious. You are enveloped in the bedding and sleep as soundly as you can imagine. The quietness of the area aids greatly in restful sleep.
As a bonus, Minnie, that official greeting cat at the Colonnade came into our room on three occasions to nap with us on the bed. We had made good friends with her in the lobby, and she started following us up the stairs to her room (a good thing, as she has gotten a bit chuckier since our first visit). Minnie is not pushy, however. If you don’t like cats. She’ll leave you alone.
The stair system has an entertaining Escher style to it. You can use the clunky, manually operated elevator (which is said to be quite old… I believe it), but the stairs are always good exercise, and fun.
Downstairs is a very nice bar and restaurant. Unfortunately, our timing never allowed us to enjoy them as we should. Still, they are very popular and appealing.
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out what some people would consider shortcomings. We had an issue with the key card reader on our room. For a couple of days, it wouldn’t work. We had been told it was fixed, but it didn’t stay fixed. That required multiple trips up and down the stairs every time it happened.
This brought up an issue with the staff. They are super-​friendly during any interaction – except when there’s a problem. When you do, they seem to get very upset, though not with us. They act like we’re going mad and almost start to cower, when we’re not mad at all. No matter how gently we asked for something small to be corrected, they over-​compensated in their concern. Sure, that’s better than the opposite, but I’d like them to act a little less frightened when I mention a problem – it’s no cause for alarm. We know we’re not in a chain hotel. We expect little unexpected things to crop up.
My only real complaint is the wifi set-​up. It’s free, yes. But, it’s not very fast and it has a bandwidth limit. That’s not exactly my idea of «free.» That’s more like «no cost.» It seems to be offered by an outside company, rather than the hotel itself, as you have to put a new code into your browser every 24 hours. If you’re staying here for business and have large files to move, it can be a problem.
At the end of the day, the Colonnade is filled with gracious people in a lovely setting, with welcoming, comfortable rooms. My wife and I love it.

Nice boutique hotel in Little Venice. Great location and walking distance to the station. Had a 4 poster bed that was solid but I melted into. Our room had a nice balcony with a decent view but unfortunately it was cold and rainy. The E Bar was connected through the basement and was decent. The whole place had a «Shining» vibe to it although on a much smaller scale. I was informed that the elevator was one of the oldest in London which didn’t make it more appealing knowing that bit of information. The breakfast was a little pricey and I recommend getting it out in one of the local cafes instead. If you’re too lazy and hungover like I was, then you’ll end up coughing up 15lbs for a mediocre english breakfast that a child could have made.

Monsieur and I returned from holiday to Major Plumbing Issues so had to find a hotel for the night until they could be rectified. The Colonnade is within walking distance of home, so we booked a room there. Then, within 5 minutes, it looked as if our plumber could fix everything that evening so we unbooked it. The hotel staff pointed out that even though the cancellation was made almost immediately after the booking, this needed to be approved by the General Manager, who wasn’t available until the next day and may still insist on penalty charges being paid. Rather than potentially lose a night’s rate as specified by the fine print, we decided to stay there regardless as a test run in case friends or family ever need a hotel near our flat.
The chilliness emanated by the receptionist on our arrival was practically unprecedented. She wore an engagement ring, causing me to wonder what on earth her fiancé could be looking for in a partner. She seemed to have been born lacking the smile gene.
Then we followed the porter to the lower ground floor where our room was located. This was already a bad sign. Never before have I stayed in a basement hotel room. The Chinese would say bad feng shui and insist on a refund. We had a tiny set of French doors onto a service area with humming external air con vents, but that wasn’t the worst of it. The room was miniscule, the décor lush but ill-​placed in such a greedily cramped conversion of space, the club next door was pumping out music until the wee hours AND we could hear the tube every time it went through nearby Warwick Avenue station. Then Monsieur opened a mystery cupboard to find some sort of building riser filled with a ladder, abandoned tiles, tools and hanging lengths of exposed wire. We debated calling upstairs to insist on another room but then we figured oh well, it’s only for one night, local licencing means the music has to stop soon and the tube will close for the night in half an hour so we stayed.
The breakfast room, which should have been open at 8am, did not open until 8.15am. We and other guests were waiting outside the locked door when it finally opened. It was actually the nightclub transformed successfully into a breakfast area. Nicely done, complete with the overweight hotel cat prowling the tables in search of tidbits. I’m not sure what the HSE would say about cats in a dining room, but this one was a cutie and indicated that any rodent problem should be well under control. Breakfast was more than adequate for a continental included in the rate and by contrast to The Receptionist of the Eternal Frown, the waitresses were the complete opposite.
I give two stars for the breakfast and charming waitresses, the water pressure in the shower and the décor. The grumpy receptionist, late-​night noise, room size and basement location only indicate that the hotelier here does not believe in giving guests value for money. Disappointing. We won’t be recommending this place, in spite of its proximity to home. Then, if you look in the hotel brochure, it promises ‘personalised business cards on your arrival with your hotel private direct phone number on them’. Really? Not that we needed or received any of these but this is surely an unnecessary extravagance for most. And just in case you happen to see one of these brochures for the Colonnade Hotel, please note that not one of the rooms shown bears any semblance to the box room we found ourselves slotted into. I can only suggest that if you are intent on trying this place, ask to see the room on arrival, prior to committing to it. For one night, we coped. Had we stayed any longer we would have kicked up an unholy fuss and Monsieur and I are not regular complainers by any means at all. Oh, and the final faux-​pas? A card on our dressing table wishing a certain Mr Hamilton a pleasant stay. Need I point out that Mr Hamilton bears no relation to Monsieur or myself? As you’ve now read the entire review, you’d probably figured that out already.

Place has character but everything could be updated a bit, no doubt. It can be a really nice place, but it depends on the room. The really inexpensive rooms are teeny-​tiny, but the next size of room is usually pretty nice. Unless the breakfast is included for free, eat at the 2 Cafes just around the corner. Food isn’t better, just much less expensive. Staying in Little Venice is nice, but the best reason to stay here is that it is also walking distance from Paddington, but not all crappy like most Paddington Hotels. Since it’s quick walk to the Heathrow Expresss, I use it a lot like an «airport hotel» but it’s nicer than that. It’s in Little Venice, not Paddington, and has its charms.

Lovely atmospheric hotel although I think we had the smallest room in the building, lovely Egyptian cotton bed linen. The staff were friendly and helpful although pre-​paying as the stay was a gift, really confused them. It was a lovely unseasonably warm evening in early October and staff were a little perturbed at out desire to take our drinks out on to the patio — although when we did lots of other people did too. The view from the bedroom window was of a car parking space and a kitchen vent — from which sometimes unpleasant smells emanated! Overall though, we may stay again — a little gem of sumptuousness in a pleasant part of London. The breakfast brought to the bedroom was expensive but very nice.

Joined to the Colonade Hotel is a little gem which you will most likely not know exists. Firstly, there’s a separate entrance than to the main building and secondly, it’s underground. Once you’ve located it, however, it’s actually a very nice bar (although the staff will assume you’ll tip after every drink, even though you have to go to the bar!) Food-​wise, the menu is sort of Tapas-​y and fairly reasonable. Check it out.