Great location, boutique style hotel, free unwanted wake up calls!
This is my first time staying at the Malmaison, but I did work in Farringdon for a number of years, so I am aware of the hotel and the surrounding area.
[SLAM]
So first off, the area. If you have business in Farringdon, then the hotel is in a great location just off Charterhouse street opposite the Smithfield Market. The hotel is about a 4-minute walk from Farringdon underground station and a similar distance from Barbican. Right outside the hotel is a decent size grass park, so if the weather is nice then you can soak up some sun outside.
[SLAM]
If you are here on vacation, then Farringdon is a decent spot to get out of the hustle and bustle of London. But it is a Monday to Friday area with the place being as dead as a dodo at the weekends. There are a ton of great old-style pubs in Farringdon with five or six of them being a stone’s throw from the Malmaison hotel. There is also a decent bar scene with places like Beduain staying open until 3 or 4 am. And if you like to drink until the sun comes up, then I believe Fabric is still operating as a traditional dance club.
[SLAM]
The hotel itself has a bit of a boutique feel to it. The hotel is a bit small with the rooms feeling slightly cramped, but not overly uncommon for this type of hotel in London. The bathrooms are spacious and probably could have been a foot or so smaller to allow the main room to be bigger. The showers in the hotel are absolutely pathetic, and despite there being a rain shower head and a standard one, you are going to need to spend an additional 15 minutes of your morning routine just to get wet! You’ll also likely find that the little water that does manage to make it out the shower head will end up on the floor, so put some towels down.
[SLAM]
The hotel has a decent size restaurant, but I didn’t eat there. I did have some room services and didn’t find the toasted sandwich particularly well made. The two hotel bars stay open until about 1 am, so if you’d rather drink closer to home, then they have you covered until a decent-ish time.
[SLAM]
The staff was helpful and friendly, albeit misinformed about certain things in the area, but no one is expecting an encyclopedia, so no big deal.
[SLAM]
You may be asking yourself why this review has the word [SLAM] dotted about it? Well, the [SLAM]’ing had me wondering what the hell was going on every morning at the Malmaison between the hours of 7 am and 11 am, waking (and keeping) me up on 5 of the 6 mornings I stayed there. I am not sure if it is just the room I had, but each morning, housekeeping would come slamming through the surrounding room and stairway doors up to the point where I wondered if I had paid extra for the mental torture package! Being the stiff upper lip Brit that I am, I obviously didn’t complain about this until the last night, with the staff taking my concerns on board and housekeeping not making a peep the next morning.
All in all, a decent hotel and in a great location if you have business in Farringdon. Be mindful of slamming door housekeepers!