www.pryordurkin.com

I hadn’t planned to be in London this week, which was a shame, because Paul was hosting an international scientific conference and it would have been a good opportunity to sneak into the venue to listen to his closing speech.  As it was I thought I would be working up in Manchester and therefore miss the opportunity to see him in action.

However as is traditional for the Pryordurkins, nothing ever quite goes to the original plan and in the end I ended up working in London on Thursday.  Because it was a last minute change I had not booked my usual choice of hotel and when I tried, it was full because of some major event taking place in London. So, having no where to stay, a very nice lady at work came to the rescue and found me a room at the Park Plaza Hotel on Westminster Bridge in South Bank. As I jumped out the taxi that took me from my offices to the hotel, I was slightly apprehensive about the quality of the hotel accommodation I would find.  I had assumed because my usual choice of hotels were full, that the only remaining rooms in the city would be a bit dodgy (hopefully Paul will write up his review of the hotel he stayed at – you’ll see the connection if he does), but as I discovered, the opposite was true.   Anyway more of that later.  I entered the hotel, which directly faces the Houses of Parliament on the other side of the river across Westminster Bridge and took the escalator up to the lobby area.  It was an enormous space with LED patterned walls that change colour over the course of the day. It was around 10pm as I checked in and at this time the walls and patterns were a nice warm shade of inviting and relaxing red.  The check-in experience was very formal and professional but didn’t match the inviting warmth of the wall.  The lady who took my particulars down did not have English as her first tongue and with my accent, the communication was a little broken.

With the check-in experience over I made my way to the lift and  selected the gods, or  as others know it, the twelfth floor.  I noticed as the lift made its way from floor to floor that it also had a ‘-4th’ floor, that the wording beside described as the Spa area.  I was too tired to explore this at this time of night so continued my journey to my room.

When I opened the door, I was slightly disappointed by the shape of the room, but was quickly distracted by a poem about sleep woven into the deep orange carpet beneath my feet.

After this unexpected cultural diversion I looked for the main light switches.  When I found them, they took a little while to figure but once I had the ‘Relax’ setting seemed the most appropriate.   As is the case for me, this time of night in a hotel away from home, I can’t wait to get out of my suit.  I stripped off and then looked for the wardrobe.  It was late and I was tired and without warning a air grumpiness came over me.  (yes – grumpiness.  Me? – exactly).  My  mind had convinced me that because the hotel and room was so trendy they didn’t want to spoil the lines with something so mundane as a wardrobe. However after pushing and pulling on lots of doors and handles I discovered a large spacious wardrobe behind what I thought was a simple wall sized piece of art (see picture).  Crumpled suit now neatly hanging I headed to the mini bar, that was discovered during the now previous period of grumpiness.  My mood rapidly improved when I discovered, unlike the Intercontinental Hotels group, that they don’t ‘skin’ you for the cost of items from the mini bar.  My small but plentiful bottle of wine, was only £4.95.

Next it was time to figure the TV. A huge flat screen affair hanging on the wall, it had a great choice of channels and even served as an internet browser with the push of a button. Missing home, I selected our website, went to the gallery page and picked one of the photo albums to display.

So there I was, in a trendy hotel room, overlooking the Houses of Parliament with photographs of home flashing up on the wall. A glass of wine from the mini bar in my hand.  It was a welcome  end to the day.

A good night sleep later, I made my way to breakfast to be shown to a table by a friendly waitress. The breakfast area was full of Americans and tourists so along with my two colleagues who were staying, we settled at a small table near the window overlooking the  rear of the hotel. Wearing business suits, we all stood out somewhat amongst the fellow relaxed and slightly sophisticated (read stuck-up) looking guests. The breakfast selection was not particularly impressive given the rest of the amenities in the hotel and I have certainly sampled much better.  However because I am looking after my figure and waistline  (as anyone who has met me recently will tell you) I opted for a light start to the day.  Cereals, crusty bread, fruit juice, scrambled egg, sausage, bacon, tomato and mushrooms! It was at this point I noticed a slim, tall cute waiter standing beside my table offering coffee.  I sucked in and said yes please with a smile in my eye. He managed to keep the look of ‘another guest overdoing the English breakfast’ on his face while leaning over and pouring my hot kick-start to the day.  As he wandered off to serve other guests I sneaked a peek at his behind and was pleased to see that he had clearly sat on something earlier, the remnants of which distracted the eye from his otherwise pert butt.

Checking out with the equally cold reception staff I noticed the walls were now a bright blue and on leaving the spacious lobby area I reminded myself that next time, I will aim to check in earlier so that I can explore the -4th floor underground Spa and leisure facilities.

Pryordurkin rating 4 stars.

PS.  I never managed to see Paul’s closing speech, because work over took my day and I didn’t leave the office until 6pm when I ran the length of Euston Road to catch the 6.30pm train out of Kings Cross to York.  Unusual for the Pryordurkin effect, Paul was there on the platform as planned and we both found a four seater table in the first class carriage restaurant to ourselves.  A nice meal later, we pulled into York and drove home.