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Choose Hyde Park For Your Stay In London
The Hyde Park Estate, just to the north of the famous park is the ideal place to stay while visiting London. Here you will find plenty of hotels and B and Bs, and also a great selection of pubs and restaurants. You are never far from a bus stop or a tube station to get you around the city. Paddington Station is nearby, from where you can take the train to Heathrow, Windsor, Bath and other great sightseeing hubs around the West of England. Of course Hyde Park itself is a great draw, featuring the Italian Gardens, the Serpentine Lake, and several sculptures and memorials.
The Hyde Park estate is an affluent area featuring rows of period townhouses, most of which have been transformed into apartments or London hotels and B and Bs. I say ‘London B and Bs’ because most of them are not bed and breakfasts in the traditional sense, but large Victorian or Georgian houses which have been converted to provide holiday accommodation and are run as businesses. In today’s parlance they are becoming known as boutique hotels or townhouse hotels, but in essence they are professionally run London B and Bs.
Inbetween the neat Georgian terraces are several mews, originally built as rows of stables with living quarters for servants above them. These served the rich families who lived in the houses. Today the mews have been converted into trendy houses and the stables are now used as garages for cars, but the cobbled streets leading from the roads give the area a 19th century charm. One set of horse stables remains in Bathurst Mews and it is a joy to watch young children take the reins of a pony during their horse riding lessons in Hyde Park.
On the edge of the Hyde Park Estate, the Lancaster London towers above Lancaster Gate underground station. It’s one of the many 60s built blocks in the area which have undergone makeovers in recent years. Some of these high rise buildings boast apartments with lovely views over Hyde Park, while the others provide vistas looking over the rooftops of the townhouses and mews.
The Hyde Park estate is also home to several boutiques, art galleries and bijoux café’s which make up Connaught Village. Famous residents include the ex-Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who lives in Connaught Square. His house is the one with armed police stationed outside. Another ex-Prime Minister who used to live in the area was Sir Winston Churchill. His former residence in Sussex Square is marked by an English Heritage blue plaque. Nearby on Sussex Place you will find the Victoria Pub which he used to frequent.