the staff was friendly and helpful, the rooms were old, but clean and functional. The only caveat was the restaurant - the food was good, and the prices were equivalent to the rest of the Central London restaurants, but they were out of a lot of common things - cabernet sauvignon wine, etc. - and the staff was not especially friendly - but again, this seems to be common at the Central London restaurants we visited. By far the best part of our visit was the hotels location - it was a 3 minute walk to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and Parliament, a n 8 minute walk to St. James part and Buckingham Palace - and it is close to the Strand and Charing Cross shopping/restaurant areas - there is even an excellent Waterstone's bookstore directly across the street - where you can get a great, and inexpensive, latte.