Publove The Rose & Crown

The location is great, and the pub staff are really friendly, but I found almost nothing positive about the hostel stay itself. There’s very little room to secure your things, and it doesn’t feel very secure. The room gets boiling hot at night, with triple bunks, no curtains, and barely any headroom. The floors weren’t swept or cleaned, and I didn’t see a hostel employee or janitor there during my stay. Everything was dirty, from mould in the room and shower to standing water in a bathroom that seemed to be sinking into the floor. The bathrooms smelled like rotting hair. It’s the cheapest place in the city, but you get what you pay for. A few of these issues could be fixed with little effort, but they just aren’t.

The shower by room 1 was seriously hot, newly renovated, very clean, and bigger than the ones at st christopher's and rest up hostel. The price was perfect and cheap, and the location is honestly great, with shops and food nearby, the train and tube station 400 metres away, and London Bridge about a 10 minute walk. Check-in was a bonus: the bar was full, but the lad who checked me in was super friendly and put check-in first. The toilet was dirty, with paper overflowing from the bin and urine on the floor. In room 1, the door slams every time someone comes or goes. It needs a safety or slow release, which are cheap and available at B&Q. My room had lots of snorers. It felt like torture, though I can’t blame the hostel for people snoring.

At lunchtime we got the special deal, fries with a cheeseburger. I wasn’t expecting much from a random pub stop, but the fries were the best I’ve ever tasted and the burger was awesome too. The bartenders were super kind and let me try the beers since I didn’t know what they tasted like. Definitely recommend and would visit again. I haven’t stayed at the hostel, just been to the pub.

We left early after just one night because the room conditions felt unliveable and unsafe, as other reviews have said. Black mould was visible on the ceiling and walls, and there was an unpleasant smell in every room. The bathroom wasn’t cleaned between the afternoon of May 15th and May 16th, and it also had mould. The washroom photos weren’t on the website, so the photos shown, apparently of the top-floor private suite washroom, didn’t represent the facilities we’d be using. I emailed the hostel privately. They replied that there was no mould, although it was easy to see even against the dark painted walls. The washroom ceiling had dark mould too, which had been covered with fresh white paint instead of fixing the problem.