Why it’s good for business
The area around Paddington station in London, rather like that around Kings
Cross, has always had a rather depressing demeanour. There is the niggling
sensation that you want to pass through as quickly as possible. And rather
like at Kings Cross, things are changing dramatically.
One sign of this is the Hotel Indigo on London Street, a couple of minutes
from the station. Indigo is InterContinental Hotels Group’s chain of
boutique hotels and the Paddington property is the first outside North
America. The hotel presents an attractive proposition from the street,
largely down to some highly tempting meringues in the window of the bar cum
restaurant cum coffee shop that fronts the hotel. Inside, it's tyipcal
boutique hotel fare - garish colours, minimalist furniture and good-looking
staff.
Paddington has become far more interesting as a business destination in recent
years thanks to the arrival of the Heathrow Express fast trains here but
also by the opening of the Paddington Basin development. It is companies in
this latter development that are expected to provide many of the guests at
the Indigo.
The room
Each floor at the Indigo has a different colour scheme and the 64 rooms are
divided into three types – single, double and king. King rooms with their
own private patios are particularly pleasant, despite knowing you are in the
middle of such a busy district.
There are all the classic ingredients of a modern boutique hotel – the puffy
white duvets topped with touchy-feely throws in bright colours and the cool
technology (see below).
The selection of free tea and coffee – good stuff not nasty tat – was a bonus,
the rattly air conditioning unit less appealing.
The rooms are dominated by huge murals on the end walls of local features –
black and white photos of the roof of Paddington station or one of the
nearby terraces, for example.
The rooms generally feel a little cramped but at the prices it charges, you
are unlikely to get much more for money in a London boutique hotel, even if
it does belong to a chain.
The bathrooms are similarly titchy and there’s only room for a shower rather
than a bath. It is a rather nice drench shower though, which partly makes up
for the tight squeeze. One annoying upshot of this cramped feel is that
there’s nowhere obvious to plonk your toilet bag. If you do find a spot for
it, you can load it up with the provided Aveda toiletries.
A place to meet
