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The Park Hyatt London River Thames is the newest Hyatt in London (it opened its doors in October last year) and it’s the most high-end Hyatt in London, so its opening has been keenly anticipated for a number of years.
After giving the property a couple of months to get up to speed and to iron out any post-opening issues, I booked a two night stay to see what the hotel has to offer and to see if it could overcome the one big concern I had when the property was first announced.
The admin
- Length of stay: 2 nights
- Actual cost of stay: 60,000 World of Hyatt points (Category 7 standard booking)
- Cheapest 2-night rate for the same dates: ~$1,226 (inc. taxes)
- Elite status at time of stay: Hyatt Globalist
- Points earned from the booking: 0 (zero)
- Upgrade instruments used: None
- Room booked: 1 King Bed
- Room received: 1 King Bed High Floor
- Upgraded: Yes, of a kind.
Location
The Park Hyatt London River Thames is located in an area of London called Nine Elms, and unlike most of the other areas of London where the city’s high-end hotels are to be found, Nine Elms is south of the river Thames and is an area that’s still seeing a lot of development.
Note: At the time of writing, there are at least two major construction sites near or next to the Park Hyatt.
As things stand (and as is likely to be the case for a number of years), this part of London isn’t particularly well served by restaurants, bars, or shops, and it is mostly home to an ever increasing number apartment buildings that have been springing up over the past five or six years.
The hotel is just a few minutes’ walk from the US Embassy, the Oval Cricket ground is only about 15 minutes’ walk away, and the Tate Britain museum is under 20 minutes’ walk away, but most people wanting to see any of London’s major sights will need to take a taxi or the Underground (from Vauxhall).
Given what a walkable city London is if you’re based on the opposite side of the river and given how well-located so many of London’s better hotels are, the location of the Park Hyatt is the property’s key weakness.
It’s also worth noting that the property doesn’t sit directly on the river. There’s a major road that runs between it and the Thames …
… and when you cross the road, there’s a further wide walkway before you get to the river.
This shouldn’t be an issue for most people as the road is easily crossed, most of the rooms that look out towards the river give an unbroken view of the Thames, and guests in these rooms probably won’t notice the road (unless they look down), but no one should turn up thinking that the hotel is directly on the river.
Getting there
If you’re arriving from Heathrow and using public transport, one of the cheapest and quickest ways to get to the hotel would be to take the Underground (subway) Piccadilly Line to Green Park station and to change there to the Victoria Line which will take you to Vauxhall station.
If you’re arriving from Gatwick and using public transport, one of the cheapest and quickest ways to get to the hotel would be to take the Southern Rail overground service to Clapham Junction (this will be a train heading to Victoria Station) and to change there to a second overground service which will take you to Vauxhall station.
The hotel is a 7 minute walk from Vauxhall station, the total travel time from Heathrow is approximately 70 – 80 minutes and the total travel time from Gatwick is approximately 55 – 65 minutes.
Arrival, check-in & the upgrade
The Park Hyatt London River Thames and River Thames Residences occupy two buildings. The taller of the two buildings is the one that houses the hotel (from the ground to the 16th floor) while the residences occupy the upper floors of the taller building and the whole of the neighboring building.
As you walk through the front door, the Nine Elms bar sits directly ahead of you (more on that later) and the lobby area, with impressive high ceilings, stretches from left to right (the check-in desks are on the right).
I arrived at the hotel around 2pm (two hours ahead of the official check-in time) and as my room wasn’t yet ready, I dropped my bags off at the bell desk and after confirming with the front desk that my room should be ready by 3pm (and that I’d get a call to let me know that it was ready), I headed out to explore the local area.
By 3:25pm I was back at the hotel and as I hadn’t had a call, I checked on the status of my room to find that it still wasn’t ready.
At this point, the weather outside had become being particularly British, so not wishing to venture out into the wind and rain, I took a seat at the bar, ordered a drink and caught up with the news.
By 4:05pm I still hadn’t had a room update, so I went back to the front desk to check on the situation and discovered that the room was now ready (what happened to the call?) and that my bar bill had been comped as an apology for the delay (a very nice gesture).
The check-in process was swift, and just a few minutes later I had retrieved my bags from the bell desk (I don’t like having to wait to have my bags delivered to the room) and I was ready to find my “River View” room which, earlier in the day, the Hyatt app had confirmed that I had been upgraded to.
The elevators to the room floors are just a few steps away from the front desk …
… and after what felt like an unusually long wait (considering that the hotel didn’t seem very busy and that there are three elevators), I made my way up to the 12th floor.
Note: The elevators don’t tell you what floor they’re currently on so until the doors open, you have no way of knowing if an elevator is on the way or how long it may be before one arrives.
The room
On the room floors, the elevator areas are spacious, and the hallways feel modern and light.
The layout of a “King Bed” room at the Park Hyatt London is pretty standard – when you open the door you’re faced with a short hallway, the bathroom is off the hallway, the closets are in the hallway and the sleeping area is directly ahead of you.
These rooms are approximately 376 sq ft (35 sq m) in size.
In the room, there is a small ledge/area for bags and suitcases by the door.
The bathroom is to the left (as you walk in).
A small round table and a single chair occupy the space by the floor-to-ceiling window.
A king-size bed dominates what remains of the room.
And there’s a small chaise longue in one corner by the bed.
The bed is very comfortable (not too soft and, somehow, not too hard either), and, I think, it’s a US-size king bed rather than a UK-size king bed (yes, there’s a difference) so it’s spacious as well.
Both sides of the bed have access to the controls for the room’s lights and blinds (one side has more controls than the other), and both sides have access to two UK-style 3-pin power outlets (bring an adapter if you’re not from the UK), a USB-A port and a USB-C port.
A further two 3-pin power outlets, a USB-A port and a USB-C port can be found near the room’s table and chair, so guests needing to charge their devices are well catered for.
The cabinet that sits between the table and the hallway is where you’ll find the room’s glassware, coffee maker, cups and mini bar.
You’ll also find that the prices for the contents of the mini bar are as high as you’d expect them to be.
Back in the hallway, the closets are a good size with plenty of hanging space (but not a lot of drawers) and house the usual amenities that you’d expect to find (hair dryer, ironing board, iron, safe, etc…).
The bathroom facilities are split into two separate areas with the Japanese-style toilet (complete with more controls than a missile launch station) occupying its own room.
And the bath, washbasin, and separate shower cubicle occupying an adjacent room.
Now this is what a good hotel bathroom should be like. There’s nothing not to like here.
- Separate toilet – excellent.
- Shower separated from the bath – excellent.
- Large shower cubicle – excellent.
- Two types of shower offered – excellent.
- Both showers dispense water with good pressure – excellent.
- Bath is big enough for a regular sized human to fit comfortably – excellent.
- Decor is clean, simple, and has a premium feel – excellent.
If I was to make one small criticism, it would be to point out that that even though there’s a small sink in the same room as the toilet, there is nowhere to hang a hand towel in that room … but that’s just a minor inconvenience.
A far as the toiletries go, it doesn’t look like the Park Hyatt London has got the memo about the move to full-size toiletries because (on this visit), all the toiletries on offer were travel size (that’s not a complaint, just an observation).
Interestingly (well, it’s interesting if you’re into this kind of thing), the toiletries offered here are from Molton Brown (a mid- to high-end British brand) while most other Park Hyatt’s that I’ve stayed at offer Le Labo products (very high-end), so it looks like the Park Hyatt London has cut its own toiletries deal.
That’s probably most of what you need to know about the room in general, but there are a few other things that I think are worth mentioning.
Firstly, there was a nice welcome card waiting for me in the room alongside a couple of desserts and complimentary bottles of water.
Secondly, when the window blind is up and you’re lying on the bed, there’s a direct view into the tall building next door.
Presumably, if I can see across to the next building, people in that building can also look across towards (and possibly into) the room, so if you get a room like this, that’s something of which you should be aware.
Thirdly, the reason why there was a view of another building from the bed is because the room I was assigned wasn’t a “River View” room (as the Hyatt app had informed me just hours before check-in), it was a regular King Room on a high floor.
This was the view at night:
And this was a view during the day.
A river view room at the Park Hyatt London would face north (more or less), while this room was on the south/southwest side of the hotel.
I’m not sure why or when the hotel removed the complimentary upgrade to a River View room, but given how quiet the property seemed to be, it struck me as strange that the property didn’t have any River View rooms available for my two night stay.
More importantly, it would have been nice to have the removal of the upgrade communicated at check-in.
Restaurants & bars
The Park Hyatt London offers guests four venues in which food and drinks are served.
Nine Elms Kitchen/Terrace
This is the property’s principal restaurant, it’s located on the ground floor, and it’s open for breakfast and all day dining.
These are the opening times (at the time of writing):
- Weekday Breakfast: 07:00 – 10:30
- Weekday Express Lunch: 12:00 – 15:00
- Weekday All Day: 12:00 – 22:00
- Weekend Breakfast: 07:00 – 11:00
- Weekend All Day: 12:30 – 22:00
Link to the restaurant website.
There’s a central kitchen in the middle of the restaurant (which I haven’t shown in the images) and the large terrace leads out to the south side of the property.
The terrace wasn’t being used during my visit (because this was winter in London) so I didn’t have an opportunity to find out what it would be like to sit outside, but I have a concern about the location.
Give or take a few feet, the red arrow on the map below shows where the terrace is located and, as you should be able to see, it’s not particularly far away from a main road.
This may turn out not to be an issue, but given the traffic on this road and the fact that a lot of the land to the south of the property is still under development (at the time of writing there are two active building sites within view of the terrace), I’m not sure how peaceful and relaxing this terrace will be. We’ll know more in the spring and the summer.
Inside, the restaurant is comfortable, nicely decorated, the tables are a good size (some tables for two could easily sit four), and the staff are friendly and helpful.
I didn’t try the restaurant’s all day dining menu on this trip, but I’ll be covering the breakfast service in the next section.
Yú Gé
Yú Gé is the Park Hyatt’s upscale Cantonese restaurant situated on the north side of the main building (facing towards the river) on the ground floor.
This small(ish) restaurant is open for lunch and dinner between Wednesday and Sunday at the following times (at the time of writing):
- Lunch: 12:00 – 15:00 (last order 14:30)
- Dinner: 17:00 – 22:30 (last order 22:00)
The restaurant is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and reservations are recommended.
As well as the main dining area …
… Yú Gé offers two private dining areas.
The first offers a traditional round table with views of the sidewalk and road outside.
The second, offers a more “westernised” setting with a long rectangular table and with similar views to the other private dining area.
At one end of the restaurant there’s also a “semi-private” dining area which is screened off from the rest of the restaurant (but isn’t in its own room) and if I was looking to host a dinner for six to eight people, this is the area I would probably try to book.
This screened off section offers a lot of privacy without locking you away from the rest of the restaurant so you can enjoy the ambiance of the establishment without being on view.
I didn’t try Yú Gé on this trip and as nice as I think the restaurant looks (the pictures don’t do it justice), and as good as I’ve been told the food is (by visitors from China), the prices that it charges will probably ensure that I won’t try it out on my next visit either.
A starter of “a trio” of dim-sum dumplings costs £26/$32, a bowl of soup starts at £18/$22, sesame prawn toast costs at £21/$26, and things just get more expensive from there.
As much as I love a great meal (and have paid for many in my time), this is a restaurant aimed at a demographic of which I’m definitely not a part!
Tamisé
Tamisé is the hotel’s wine bar located on the 2nd floor of the property (3rd floor if you’re counting floors US-style) and it sits above Yú Gé facing towards the river Thames.
At the time of writing, the hotel’s website shows that Tamisé is closed and that it’s opening on 14 February, but on this visit, the bar was preparing to host a function, so I took the opportunity to have a look around.
Link to the wine bar’s website
Tamisé has a very nice feel to it, and if you enjoy high-end wines, its cellar of over 2,000 wines spread across 300 labels may be worth taking a look at.
Between the comfortable chairs, the elegant bar area, and the abundance of light courtesy of floor to ceiling windows on three sides, this should be a great place to relax of an evening and it’s a part of the hotel that I would be keen to visit the next time I’m in town.
The Nine Elms Bar & Lounge
The Nine Elms Bar and Lounge is the first area of the hotel that most people see when they arrive as it sits directly ahead of the main doors.
The decor in the bar manages to be both classic and contemporary at the same time and it seems to work.
The bar is open between 11:00 and 23:00 on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday and between 11:00 and midnight on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
Being a bar, its primary focus is to serve alcoholic drinks and mocktails most hours of the day, but it also serves coffees, teas, and juices as well as a limited selection of food (“bites”, small plates, large plates, and sides).
The staff here are very friendly and will happily mix you up a cocktail (or mocktail) of your choice, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that the wine selection is limited to what you’ll find on the main bar menu (which has a very limited selection) – if you ask for the Tamisé menu you’ll find that the selection is considerably more impressive.
Note: During the afternoon on the first day of my stay (a Friday), a distant dull thudding from the construction site next door could be heard in the bar. As the second day of my stay was a weekend, I can’t be sure if this was a one-off occurrence or if this is currently par for the course on weekdays. There was no noise in the evening.
Link to the Nine Elms Bar & Lounge webpage
Breakfast
Breakfast is served daily at the Nine Elms Kitchen & Terrace (07:00 – 10:30 on weekdays and 07:00 – 11:00 on weekends) and guests are offered a buffet and an a la carte menu.
The buffet has everything that you would normally associate with a continental breakfast (and a little more), while the à la carte menu offers a selection of standard western hot options and a few Chinese dishes as well.
Hyatt Globalists, visitors on a Guest of Honor booking and guests who have breakfast included in their room rate are welcome to help themselves to the buffet and to a hot option from the à la carte menu (I believe that only one hot option may be chosen per guest, but there didn’t appear to be a cap on the number of coffees or juices that could be ordered).
Guests who have breakfast included are presented with a menu without prices (as you may have seen at the beginning of this section), but I managed to get a look at a regular menu as well.
The “Continental Buffet” on its own costs £28/$34 and “Breakfast at the Park” (continental buffet + one hot option from the à la carte menu + a hot beverage) costs £38/$46.
The “Full English” (shown above) costs £28/$34, the Eggs Florentine (shown above) costs £21/$25.50, the Avocado Toast with Poached Eggs (shown above) costs £21/$25.50, and the Steamed Dim Sum (shown above) costs £16/$20.
The quality of the food in the buffet is, unquestionably, of a higher standard than the food you’ll find in the buffets offered by the other London Hyatts, but while the food from the à la carte menu was also good, it’s nothing special and I would question whether it is worth what the hotel is charging.
Questionable value for money aside, there is one other issue that I’d should raise about breakfast at the Nine Elms Kitchen, and it’s the issue of ambience.
As mentioned earlier (in the dining section of this review), the restaurant is set out in such a way that most of the seating areas surround a central Kitchen which is open on all sides. This means that whatever goes on in the kitchen can be heard by most people in the room and on this visit, the head chef was more than a little “shouty”.
Put bluntly, if I want to enjoy a roadside diner atmosphere, I’ll visit a roadside diner and sit up at the counter, but when I’m hoping to enjoy a relaxing start to my day at a high-end hotel, I don’t want to have to listen to someone shouting out food orders (and having them echoed back to him) every few minutes.
At first, this is tolerable. But after about 15 minutes it starts to get annoying, and after half an hour it’s tempting to head up to the kitchen and to ram a particularly large muffin in the chef’s “pie hole” (as someone British may put it) just to shut him up.
Breakfast is fine/good (if overpriced), but the shouting needs to stop.
Fitness center and pool
The fitness center and pool are on the 1st floor of the property (2nd floor if you’re counting floors US-style) and they share locker rooms with the spa.
The fitness center (open 24 hours) is well equipped, and because it’s above ground and because it has floor to ceiling windows on one side, it feels spacious and bright, and that makes it considerably better then a lot of other hotel gyms in London which are often located on a subterranean floor.
The locker rooms are impressive. There’s plenty of space, there’s an ample number of lockers, the showers are excellent, and the sauna is a great place to relax after a workout.
The locker rooms are very, very nice, but they’re not the most impressive thing on this floor. That honor goes to the swimming pool (open between 07:00 and 21:00 daily).
This is a 20m x 8m (~65ft x ~26ft) heated swimming pool which has natural light shining in from two sides courtesy of more floor to ceiling windows.
Sure, right now it’s probably best not to look out of the windows …
… but the whole pool area feels relaxed (it was deserted both times that I visited), and the comfortable loungers combined with the room’s warmth make this a great place to unwind after a day navigating the cauldron of humanity that is London.
It’s amenities like this which really help to distinguish the Park Hyatt from the other Hyatts in London and from the upper-level Marriott’s, Hiltons, and InterContinentals in London as well.
Yes, the InterContinental London O2 has a reasonably impressive indoor pool as well, but the whole package at the Park Hyatt feels considerably more “upscale”, and the fact that children are limited to using the pool between certain hours (10:00 – 11:30 and 15:00 to 16:30), means that the Park Hyatt pool area is considerably less noisy at most times of the day.
For me, the swimming pool and locker rooms are the standout highlights of the Park Hyatt London.
The spa
The spa at the Park Hyatt London sits on the same floor as the fitness center, the pool, and the locker rooms, but as I wasn’t tempted to book any treatments, there isn’t much more than I can tell you about it.
30 minute treatments start at £90/$110 and 60 minute treatments start at £165/$200 (most 60 minute massages cost £190/$230 or more), so pricing seems to be in line with most other hotels of this level.
Link to spa webpage + link to spa menu
A summary
There are things that l like about the Park Hyatt London and things that I don’t, so there’s not going to be a clear-cut and definitive judgement on the property to end this review.
The positives
The staff were all very friendly.
The property felt upscale – the decor and the feeling of space in the public areas helped give the hotel a “premium” feel.
The swimming pool area and the locker rooms look fantastic, and they’re the kinds of amenities that will make a difference when the weather outside is uninviting and guests want to spend more time in the hotel.
Tamisé (the wine bar) looks like it’s going to be a great place to relax in the evening and the wine list looks impressive.
The “King Bed” room is spacious enough for a couple on a multi-night stay, the bed is very comfortable, there are a good number of easily accessible power outlets in the room, and the bathroom is excellent.
The negatives
The property needs to do better with its communications. There was no welcome email, the promised call to let me know my room was ready never materialised, and there was no warning given that my upgrade had been reversed, and it’s small things like this that people expect top-tier hotels to be good at dealing with.
The sooner we see the end to the building works that are going on at sites adjacent to the hotel the better as no one books a high-end property to look out of their window onto a building site. Clearly this is out of the control of the Park Hyatt, but that won’t make it any less relevant to some guests.
The breakfast is fine (if overpriced), but the chef needs to tone things down. I don’t need to know what the table across the room has ordered and I certainly don’t need that information shouted out.
The location isn’t good and this, as I mentioned towards the beginning of this article, is the Park Hyatt’s biggest weakness.
There’s not much in the way of bars, restaurants or attractions in Nine Elms, and even though the property sits between two major roads, these aren’t roads that see a lot of London taxis driving by.
This leaves guests at the mercy of Uber (a bad option in London because most London Uber drivers are useless), the Gett app (an app that will call you a traditional London Taxi but which seems to charge high rates for the privilege), and London Underground (which can be a great way to get around the city but a 7 minute walk to the nearest station isn’t ideal if the weather isn’t great).
The conclusion
So how do I sum up my feelings about the Park Hyatt London? This is tricky …
If the point of my next trip to London was to explore the city and to enjoy all that it has to offer, I don’t think that I would return to the Park Hyatt because the property’s location isn’t great for any of that.
There are plenty of other very good properties in London (at a similar or lower price points) which would be better suited to a visitor wanting to explore, and while not all of these properties may feel as premium as the Park Hyatt, they’re still very good properties, and if you’re going to be spending most of your time exploring the city and not on site, isn’t location more important than upscale decor and finishes?
If, however, I was only in London for a few meetings and didn’t feel the need to be out and about all the time, or if I simply wanted a break from the world and just needed somewhere to relax for a weekend, the Park Hyatt London would probably suit me quite well.
The entry-level rooms are comfortable places to spend some time, and the hotel’s pool area and sauna would be great places to unwind and relax away from the busy city across the river.
So, I guess I could sum up my thoughts like this: As a traditional city center hotel, the Park Hyatt London wouldn’t work for me, but as an elegant place to relax, unwind, and not do very much, it would probably work quite well.
Related (other London reviews):
- Great Scotland Yard Hotel London review (Hyatt Unbound Collection)
- Hyatt Regency London Blackfriars review
- Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill review (Regency Suite)
- Hyatt Regency London Albert Embankment review
- Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport review
- London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square review
- Hilton London Canary Wharf review
Very detailed review–appreciate it. The location really is a deal-breaker because the hotel looks beautiful.