The Penn Club

For a budget stay, this is excellent value if you want a civilised base. The staff are charming, and there are lovely, large sitting rooms. There’s no bar, but you can bring your own drinks. The dining room has facilities for bringing in your own food, including a microwave. Rooms are generous by London standards, very clean, and have good showers. It’s so quiet and peaceful you wouldn’t think you were in central London. A real hidden gem.

My mother stayed here as a young adult on her first trip to London, so I chose it for my own first visit. It’s a cosy little hotel with clean, comfortable rooms, and they serve an English breakfast in the morning. My room didn’t have a toilet or shower, but the bathroom on the floor was perfectly fine. The lack of a lift was the main problem. I’m travelling in Europe for a month with a heavy suitcase, and hauling it up four flights was a real pain. I can imagine putting a lift into an old building would cost a lot, though. I’d still recommend the Penn Club.

A basic place with mixed points. The breakfast is good, but the reception staff varied a lot in how friendly and helpful they were. Rooms on the lower floors feel bigger and airier, while the top floor rooms are small. There are no little shampoo bottles or Kleenex.

We keep choosing the Penn Club when we visit London for its serenity, cleanliness, comfort, courtesy, and dignity. The Georgian terrace feels like a peaceful oasis in a busy, crowded city. The Club depends on its members to preserve that atmosphere, and its charitable status lets it lease the building on favourable terms that a purely commercial operation couldn’t get. With overheads always rising, the Club needs to maximize income, and adding a bar could do that easily. Members oppose the idea because they feel it would undermine the calm. Perhaps the Club’s future in its current form would be more secure if everyone who stays for these qualities became a member.