Guoman Grosvenor Hotel
The Wellington Tour, 4-14 September, 2014, will begin at the Guoman Grosvenor Hotel, 101 Buckingham Palace Road. The hotel is connected to Victoria Station, home of several rail and tube lines, plus hundreds of busses, coaches, and taxis. It is super-convenient and appears quite lovely in its newly restored state.
Victoria Station with Grosvenor Hotel at far right
Map of Victoria Station neighborhood
Station and hotel at red marker
Square tan building just under words ‘Green Park’ is Buckingham Palace
Apsley house at the far left upper corner
The little map above shows the position of Victoria Station and the hotel, which you can see on any London map. I can’t imagine any more efficient location for almost every London attraction.
Victoria Station interior
Victoria Station itself is the second busiest in London (after Waterloo Station), with many rail lines to destinations in south and southeast England, including the Gatwick Express. The Circle and District tube lines and the Victoria line stop here, and the Victoria Coach Terminal is adjacent. The station has many shops, bars, and food sources, right at hand. An upgrade of the facility is planned for the next few years, to include more escalators and improved accessibility.
Guoman Grosvenor Hotel
The hotel has been newly refurbished and updated, at a cost of £20 million. The Grosvenor (not to be confused with Grosvenor House, another London hotel on Park Lane) was opened in 1862, one of the earliest of London’s Victorian Railway Hotels built beside railroad stations.
Many of these old hotels had declined into disuse in the past decades, and the Guoman Grosvenor is not the only one to be newly redone. I recently wrote about the St. Pancras Renaissance hotel, formerly the Midland Grand Hotel, and the Great Northern Hotel at King’s Cross, both on Euston Road, here.
Réunion Bar
In addition to meeting rooms, the bar (above), a gym, a business center, and the Grand Imperial Cantonese Restaurant, the hotel promises all 21st century amenities. Additionally, the adjacent Victoria Station complex houses many restaurants and a shopping arcade.
Guoman Grosvenor Hotel
The hotel website is here. Hope to see you on this street in September, 2014.
For details on the Wellington Tour, click here.
One thing you might want to mention is that "Grosvenor' is pronounced "Grovener." It can be hard for we Americans to figure out these things…there's a future post idea – how to pronounce all the names of the places you'll be going.