Photo: londondrum.comUseful things to know before your stay
Star rating: ★★★★★ Address: The Trafalgar St. James, 2 Spring Gardens, Trafalgar Square SW1A 2TS. Telephone: 0207 870 2900. Website: trafalgarstjames.com
Is the hotel a good base for sightseeing?
It’s absolutely perfect. You’ll find it on one corner of Trafalgar Square, a short walk from Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Leicester Square and Covent Garden. Other attractions within a 15 minute walk include Nelson’s Column, Trafalgar Square, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Household Cavalry Museum, Benjamin Franklin House, Horse Guards, Leicester Square, Banqueting House, Piccadilly Circus, Downing Street, Chinatown, St. James’s Park, Churchill War Rooms and Cleopatra’s Needle.
How much does it cost to stay at the hotel?
Prices can change from day to day depending on availability, but a rough guide for both single and double rooms is £376 to £499 per night.
How many rooms does it have?
The Trafalgar St James has 131 rooms.
What facilities does the hotel have?
The hotel has a restaurant, two bars (including a rooftop bar overlooking Trafalgar Square), a fitness centre, and a 24-hour front desk with concierge and currency exchange services.
What facilities are in the rooms?
A standard room has a minibar, tea & coffee making facilities, a TV, telephone and wi-fi, a personal safe, and an ensuite bathroom with a hairdryer, iron and air-conditioning.
What time is check-in, and check-out?
Check-in is from 3 PM and check-out is by 12 noon.
Which buses go to The Trafalgar St James?
Bus routes 8, 26, 35, 42, 47, 48, 78, 135, 149, 205, 242, 344 and 388 all stop close by.
Which is the closest train station?
The nearest station is Charing Cross, which connects with the Bakerloo and Northern lines. It also serves National Rail trains. It only takes four minutes to walk to The Trafalgar St James.
Does the hotel have its own car park?
No. But here’s a list of car parks near Trafalgar Square.
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Email My review of The Trafalgar St James
You can generally tell whether you’re going to like a hotel within the first two minutes, and it took me even less than that for the Trafalgar St. James – I loved it as soon as I saw where it was located. It’s on one corner of Trafalgar Square, about sixty seconds from the National Gallery and five minutes from Big Ben.
The bedroom is nice and large with a desk and separate sitting area, and the bathroom has a bath and set of scales (I’m not telling you how much I weigh). You also get a widescreen TV with a DVD player, minibar and safe, plus an ironing board and iron, and something called a shoe mitt.
Photo: londondrum.comBut most importantly, how many teabags do you get? Well, I’m happy to report that they’ve been super generous – they’ve given me more tea than I can drink in a day. I’ve got eight teabags, three coffees, two hot chocolates and six milks. And two biscuits. But one of the biscuits is banana flavour and I’m not sure how I feel about dipping a banana into my cup of tea.
I always like to price up the minibar so you can see how expensive it is. Every hotel minibar is expensive, of course, because the hoteliers know they’ll always be someone sitting here at midnight listening to the clock ticking along with the raindrops on the window. But you’d be better off going to the pub because it’s £7 quid for a tiny shot of vodka. Another £7 quid for rum and £3.75 for Coke. Even the water costs three quid.
I’ve just noticed a tiny sign on the minibar which says (and I quote): “Please be aware that any items moved will be charged using motion sensor technology” – Now they tell me! I’ve just been shifting the whole lot around to see what was on offer – I’ll probably get billed an extra fifty quid now. Ah well. I may as well drink the whole lot now.
Photo: londondrum.comThe downstairs restaurant is basically the same as the bar, but they’ve also got a rooftop one that overlooks Trafalgar Square. And when I say a rooftop one that is exactly what I mean… it is literally on the roof. If it’s raining then you will get wet. Apparently they only open it during the sunny months, so if you book a room during the winter then expect it to be closed. The view is rather wonderful and looks straight down onto Trafalgar Square towards Nelson’s Column, the National Gallery and St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Unfortunately they won’t let you have a quick coffee on its own – you have to reserve a table and sit down to eat (it’s not like a pub). But it’s well worth poking your nose in just to have a peer over the edge.
Photo: londondrum.comI’m not too fussed about their breakfast. I’d much rather have baked beans, sausages and eggs like everywhere else, but you have to sit and watch while the egg chef makes you an omelette. That is basically the only hot food on offer: an omelette. But this is no ordinary omelette – he doesn’t just crack an egg into a pan and flip it over a few times. This omelette is a work of art with meat, mushrooms and peppers, all coloured up and folded over a few times. It was an interesting experience eating it the first time, but I think you’ll get bored of having an omelette every day.
So that is my only tiny criticism. The location = great. The room = great. The rooftop bar = great. The breakfast = not so great.
Trafalgar Square appears in my best way to see London in a day itineraries, two free London itineraries, three 2-day London itineraries, family weekends in London and 7-day London plan
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What do you think? (4)
Ask a question, or share your experience of The Trafalgar St. James
JillH Is it a good area for a central base? We are staying in London for six days and neither of us can walk very far. The hotel looks very nice on the website. I don’t think we will make much use of the rooftop restaurant so that isn’t an attraction. (reply)
Craig Hi Jill H. It’s right on Trafalgar Square which is about as central as you can get. Big Ben, Horse Guards and Westminster Abbey are only a short walk down Whitehall, and you walk to Leicester Square easy enough as well. You can catch buses to pretty much everywhere from Trafalgar Square – they go straight up the Strand to St. Paul’s, the City and all the way up to the Tower of London. You can catch them the other way towards Oxford Street, Marble Arch and South Kensington as well. You might want to check out the Royal Horseguards as well, which I think is a better 5-star hotel close-by – hotels/royal-horseguards.php (reply)
Brian Is there car parking at the hotel? (reply)
Craig Hi Brian. They’ve got a deal with the underground Q Park which is practically next-door. It’s quite pricey though, at the time of writing it’s 39 quid a day (ten quid cheaper than the public would pay) – q-park.co.uk/en-gb/cities/london/trafalgar/ (reply)
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