The Gateway Hotel, Clapham, London (Review)

I stayed 4 nights at The Gateway Hotel, a boutique hotel in Greater London. It’s just outside the major part of the city in a smaller area called Lambeth, specifically Clapham, which is about 30 minutes south or so on the Northern line.

This is a review of my stay at The Gateway Hotel in August 2022, plus information about my room, the hotel itself, and other things related to my stay.

Note: I paid for the room myself and have not received compensation from the hotel for writing this review. It’s my own thoughts and experiences and I’ve not been influenced in any way!

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The Gateway Hotel (London, UK)

Quick Info

💳Using credit card points to pay for hotel rooms is a great way to save money on a trip! I use the Chase Sapphire Preferred card for all my expenses, and stock up on points for when I visit more expensive cities (like London).

The metro station looked fairly rough (needed to be cleaned), but it wasn’t as bad as some stations I’ve been to in NYC. The people I saw wandering around were university students and families, and it was pretty lively all day. Near the hotel is some restaurants and pubs, a Tesco’s, an Aldi, a Co-Op and a Sainsbury’s.

My Room

I booked a double room with an ensuite, which ended up being on the ground floor.

An amazing thing about this room: it had a mini-fridge! This was super rare in the hotels I stayed at in England, and I was so happy to have it because I could keep snacks and drinks in it. I also had the standard hot water kettle and coffee/tea selection.

The room also came with a desk, a small TV, and a radiator. There’s no air con but I did get a fan to use.

The ceilings are MASSIVE! Unfortunately I did hear my upstairs neighbors quite a bit, but in old buildings that’s expected.

Because I was on the ground floor, and because the balcony door faced out onto the street, I did hear quite a bit of street noise. On the weekend it got particularly loud due to a pub just on the next corner. That said, the balcony doors actually did damped the sound quite a lot. If you watch the tour video, you can hear the difference it makes having the doors open vs. closed.

So nice having a larger mattress again! Single hotel rooms are the cheapest and most commonly found in the UK, so finding a double bed within my price range was exciting.

Very tiny bathroom and a bit difficult to photograph! Sparse amenities, just a random bottle of body wash which I didn’t use and some shower caps.

Unfortunately there was a heavy sewer smell, I assume because the pipes are old and things are settling in there.

Every room has a Juliet balcony but mine was a bit useless because a) it was full of dead leaves, b) it opened up directly onto the street and I didn’t feel that was safe and c) there’s nothing out there anyway. I suppose it’d be good for someone who wanted to smoke, though.

Room Tour Video

If you prefer video, here’s a room tour I filmed the day I checked in:

I didn’t explore much of the hotel, but I also didn’t notice any sitting areas or anything like that. The entryway did have this amazing tile which I wanted to show off!

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