Review: The London EDITION (too expensive for what it offers)

A Traveling for Miles review of the London EDITION.

The London EDITION opened its doors almost 16 years ago and it is a property I’ve stayed at a couple of times in the past. The last time I stayed, however, was quite a few years ago, so as I had a Marriott Bonvoy free night certificate to burn, I thought I’d use it to book Joanna and myself a 1-night stay to get a more up-to-date review of the property.

Getting there/location

The London EDITION is located reasonably centrally and sits one block north of London’s Oxford Street shopping area.

If you’re arriving from Heathrow and using public transport, one of the cheapest ways to get to the hotel would be to take the Underground (subway) Piccadilly Line to Green Park and there, to take the Victoria Line 1 stop to Oxford Circus and to then walk to the property (approx. 6 minutes).

The quickest way to the property from Heathrow (using public transport) is to take the Elizabeth Line to Tottenham Court Road (no changes required) and to then walk to the property (approx. 4 minutes).

If you’re arriving from Gatwick and using public transport, one of the easier ways to get to the hotel would be to take the Southern or Gatwick Express service to London Victoria and from there, change to the London Underground and take the Victoria Line 2 stops to Oxford Circus and to then walk to the property (approx. 6 minutes).

If you’re traveling with suitcases, a taxi/Uber/Bolt may be your best option.

Location-wise, the EDITION scores well.

It sits close to Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road Underground stations which, between them, give you access to five train lines. These will give you quick and easy access to most of London’s major sights (most would be within a 15 minute ride).

For those who enjoy a walk:

• Oxford Street (middle of the road shopping) is 2 minutes away
• Soho (and all the eateries and bars that go with it) is ~ 5 minutes away
• Regent Street (historic and more shopping) is ~6 minutes away
• The British Museum (full of amazing artefacts) is ~12 minutes away
• Covent Garden and the bulk of London’s West End Theatres are ~15-20 minutes away

Personally, I would avoid Oxford Street because it’s just one big mass of people all milling around with, often, no real sense of purpose, but if you explore the area around the hotel (north of Oxford Street) you find some nice coffee shops and some beautiful architecture.

A bit of background

The building that the London EDITION now occupies was originally five townhouses which were built in 1835. These buildings were combined to form the Berners Hotel in 1908. The Berners hotel closed for refurbishment in January 2006, but the global financial crisis of 2008 put the parent company into financial trouble and, in 2010, into liquidation.

Marriott International and Ian Schrager purchased the property in late 2010 and reopened it as the London EDITION in September 2013 with 164 rooms and just 9 suites.

Arrival, check in & lobby

As soon as you walk through the doors of the London EDITION you’ll find yourself in a beautiful Edwardian era space with a variety of seating options, marble columns, a pool table, a fireplace, and the lobby bar.

You get a better view of the lobby from the mezzanine floor.

This is a beautiful space to be in and it’s a real statement of grandeur that hits you as soon as you arrive.

The check-in desk is straight ahead of the hotel entrance and on the left.

We arrived at the London EDITION around 14:30 (the official check in time is 16:00) to find that our room was already ready.

I had used my free night certificate (worth up to 85,000 points on a single night standard room booking) to book an entry-level “Superior Queen” room (19 sqm/204 sqft – 24 sqm/258 sqft) and the front desk agent confirmed that my Bonvoy Titanium elite status has secured us an upgrade to a “Deluxe King” room (25 sqm/269 sqft – 33 sqm/355 sqft).

The property was still selling larger rooms on higher floors at the time of our arrival, but on a 1-night stay I wasn’t going to push for a better upgrade.

Check-in didn’t take long and we were soon on our way to the hotel’s two elevators a short walk from the check-in desk.

Disappointingly and for the second time in three visits, one of the property’s elevators was out of service and it didn’t return to service during our stay.

I don’t know if I’m just super unlucky or whether the EDITION’s elevators were installed on the cheap but, unsurprisingly, having just one working elevator caused issues at busier times (we had a 10 minute wait for an elevator at breakfast time).

Something else that you need to know about the elevators here is that they are darker than a moonless night viewed through sunglasses.

The image above doesn’t do the darkness justice, so you’ll just have to trust me on this.

Anyway, with that mini-rant over, let’s move on.

Deluxe King Room

Our room was on the property’s 4th floor and the Edwardian splendour from the lobby is nowhere to be seen once you step out of the elevators. The hallways are bland and lacking in any kind of character.

Fortunately, there’s a little more design going on once you enter a room.

In the case of this room, the door opens to reveal a short hallway with a closet and amenities station on the right, the en suite bathroom to the left and the sleeping area straight ahead.

The room’s desk is long and narrow, but it’s fine for getting some work done.

This room feels spacious enough and it gets a good amount of light coming in (the curtains are floor-to-ceiling but the windows are not).

There’s a lot of wood here.

The floors are made from wood, the closet is made from wood, the desk is made from wood, one of the chairs is made from wood, and the walls are paneled with … wood.

When there’s light coming in, it’s fine. But in London, great weather isn’t a guarantee and during the darker, more overcast days that often plague the city, all this wood can make the room feel dark (although not as dark as the elevators!).

Looking around the sleeping area, there’s good and bad to report.

On the good side, the bed is comfortable, the pillows aren’t too soft, the armchair is fine, the desk has access to two power outlets (UK variety, so bring an adapter if you’re not from the UK – affiliate link) and two USB-A ports, and the windows have blinds that do a good job of blocking out light.

On the bad side, only one side of the bed has access to any kind of power (inexcusable for a property that’s not even 13 years old), the desk chair is a little hard (which becomes noticeable after about an hour of work), the TV cables are too short (so you can’t angle the TV towards the bed very easily), there’s not much privacy once you have the blinds up (the view from the room looks straight into what I think is an apartment block) and the soundproofing isn’t great – from around 10pm we could hear noise (tv or voices, I’m not sure) from somewhere adjacent to our room (not the hallway).

Also, because the EDITION sits within a historic building, it has period windows (i.e. they’re not very soundproof), so if you happen to have someone driving an obnoxiously loud car on the street outside, you’re going to hear it.

To be fair to the hotel, however, it can’t do much about the windows or the view, but both “issues” are still worth keeping in mind if you’re planning a visit.

Back in the hallway, we have the closet and the amenities station.

There’s a reasonable amount of hanging space here and the bar is set high enough that only the very longest dresses may touch the bottom.

Unfortunately, there are no drawers here and as there are no drawers by the bed or under the desk, that means that the room only has two small useable drawers in total (under the amenity station). That strikes me as an oversight.

Speaking of the amenity station, this is what that looks like.

On the top there’s a mini bar (which comes with the customary ridiculous pricing) and below, you’ll find a coffee maker, coffee, complimentary water, two cups and some glasses. There’s no kettle (although one can be requested).

In the drawer under the coffee maker, you’ll find some overpriced snacks which you can (mostly) purchase from the supermarket a couple of hundred yards away for considerably less.

I’m not sure how many people actually consume any of these snacks, but given that they’re taking up 33% of the room’s drawer ration, I wish they, like the kettle, were on request (although I guess that would significantly lower the chances of the EDITION making any money out of them).

The last area of the room that we now come to is the bathroom which, just like a lot of other parts of this hotel, is quite dark.

I like the design, I like how minimalist it all feels and I like the large shower cubicle with two shower types. If you’re a big fan of baths/tubs, you may not feel the same way.

As is to be expected, all the toiletries are full-size, but on a positive note, they’re by Le Labo and are genuinely very good.

Don’t, however, be tempted to remove any of these “as a souvenir” because the hotel will charge you £60 (~$80) per bottle that you remove.

That’s it for the room and, overall, it’s fine but not great and I say that while keeping in mind that this property frequently prices this room type at well over £700 (~$930) per night.

At that price level I expect a little bit of wow factor or something special, and Le Labo toiletries aside, there’s nothing here that you can’t get at an equally well located property costing less.

Still, it’s unfair to judge the room rate on the room alone, so let’s see what else the hotel has to offer.

Dining and bars

The London EDITION has one restaurant and two bars.

The Lobby Bar

I mentioned the lobby bar towards the beginning of this review and there’s really not too much that needs to be said about it.

The bar staff are very friendly, it’s open between 08:00 and 01:00 on most days (it’s only open until 23:00 on Sundays), and it serves cocktails, wines, spirits, and a small selection of beers.

The Punch Room

This is the EDITION’s cocktail bar and it sits just past the reception desks and on the left.

If you thought the room had a lot of wood, just look at this place!

The Punch Room is open Tuesday through Saturday from 17:30 to 00:30 and it lives up to its name by serving a selection of punches (including the Editions signature “Milk Punch”) alongside a variety of cocktails and wines.

This space continues three themes that appear to run through the EDITION, friendly staff, wood everywhere, and lighting so low that you’ll need bat-like echolocation to move around safely (the images you see above make the Punch Room look considerably brighter than it really is).

Note: There aren’t that many tables in here, so if you think you’d like to try it out, I suggest asking the concierge/front desk to make you a reservation.

Berners Tavern

The Berners Tavern is the restaurant attached to the EDITION, but it’s much more than just a hotel restaurant. This has been a very well regarded London landmark since it was opened by two Michelin-starred chef Jason Atherton (he doesn’t hold the stars for Berners Tavern).

Berners Tavern serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week and, inside, it looks fantastic.

The room offers a real sense of occasion with its high ceilings, its Edwardian architecture, its bar* with an incredibly tall drinks cabinet, and pictures taking up just about every inch of wall space. This is a very nice space in which to dine.

Breakfast at Berners is an à la carte affair and because this is an EDITION property there is no option of a complimentary breakfast for higher level Bonvoy elites. This place is a leveler as everyone has to pay (unless you book a rate which includes breakfast).

On this occasion, breakfast was a disappointment.

We waited over 10 minutes to have our order taken, it took 30 minutes to have my Eggs Royale delivered and when I cut into the eggs they were very clearly overcooked and they were cold.

Given that my order took so long to arrive, Joanna and I had both finished our coffees well before the overcooked eggs were served, but no one came around to ask if we wanted more. We had to wait until the eggs were served before being able to request second coffees.

Had the restaurant been busy, I would have had some sympathy for the staff, but it was, at most, half full, and it was hard to shake the feeling that the staff weren’t overly keen to do more than the very minimum. They were friendly, but clearly not very engaged in offering good service.

Oh, and then there was the cost. Four coffees, one overcooked Eggs Royale, and a bowl of fruit cost £61 (~$82).

I know that this is an upscale restaurant in an expensive hotel, but how do you justify that?

Moreover, how do you justify charging £7 (~$9.40) for a side of grilled tomatoes?!

To be frank, this felt like a bit of a rip-off and the poor service didn’t really help matters.

There are plenty of good eateries that serve breakfast within a 10 minute walking radius of the London EDITION (Lantana Fitzrovia is good and just 5 minutes walk away) so you don’t have to start the day at the EDITION.

That being said, it’s nice not to have to wander outside first thing in the morning if the weather isn’t great, so if you think you’d prefer to have breakfast on site, I suggest booking a rate which includes it (there’s often less than £40 (~$54) between a standard rate and a rate which includes breakfast).

As far as dinner goes, that’s a very different story.

I didn’t have dinner at Berners Tavern on this trip, but I visited a few weeks later and the food was excellent. Expensive, but excellent, and as long as your wallet can handle a hammering, I suggest you give it a try (a reservation may also be a good idea as this is a popular spot).

Unfortunately I have no images of dinner to share with you as (a) it would have been impolite in the company I was keeping and (b) there was absolutely no chance that any attempt at photography would work as it was so dark I could only just about see my dining companions (I told you this was a London EDITION trend!).

Darkness aside, I need to re-emphasise that dinner was really, really good (both the food and the service) so it looks like there are two sides to this restaurant. I can’t imagine ever having breakfast here again but I’d happily go back for dinner.

*I said that the EDITION has two bars and this would make it three, but this is very much part of the restaurant and not a standalone bar.

Link to the current Berners Tavern menus

The gym

The hotel gym sits on the lower ground floor and so it has minimal access to natural light.

It’s well equipped and it’s almost always very quiet, so it’s probably a good place for a workout if you absolutely have to have one. But despite not being particularly small (I’ve seen a lot of smaller hotel gyms), it doesn’t feel inviting and it feels a little claustrophobic. Like working out in a garage with the doors closed.

Again, to be fair to the hotel, this isn’t the kind of property at which the clientele seem particularly keen to use the gym, so it would probably be a poor use of space to put it somewhere at street level or higher.

I understand why it is where it is, but I have to be honest and say that, for most people, I don’t think it will feel like a great place to work out.

Final thoughts

I’m not really sure I see the point of the London EDITION. It’s an expensive property that doesn’t really offer much more than a lot of other London hotels that don’t cost so much.

Yes, the building looks beautiful from the outside, the lobby looks great, and Berners Tavern can be a very nice place for dinner, but you don’t have to stay at the EDITION to enjoy any of that. You can walk past or walk in to enjoy the architecture (and the lobby bar) and you can dine at Berners whenever you feel like it (with a reservation).

Breakfast is too expensive for what it is and the service leaves a lot to be desired, the hallways are bland, the rooms are not anything special (they lack a few basic features and have poor soundproofing), the elevators seem to break down easily, the gym is in the basement, and, for those who care about such things, there’s no spa or swimming pool.

So what are we being asked to pay for? The location? That’s good but hardly fantastic. The rooms? Definitely not. So what is it?

London is an expensive city and it has a lot of expensive hotels, but expensive doesn’t mean good. Not all of the city’s expensive hotels can realistically justify what they’re charging and, sadly, the London EDITION sits in my “can’t justify the cost” list.

At a lower price point, there are a number of just as good or better options in London, and at the EDITION’s price point there are quite a few, so unless you’re burning a free night certificate and simply want to see what the property is all about, I can’t see why you would pick the EDITION over the competition.

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