Review: 100 Queen’s Gate, South Kensington: the last stop on my Hilton Curio hotel tour of London

This is our review of the 100 Queen’s Gate hotel, part of Hilton’s Curio Collection.

If you have been following my ‘staycation’ reviews of London hotels, you’ll know that I’ve been making my way through Hilton’s six Curio Collection hotels.

As one of Hilton’s ‘collection’ brands, Curio brings together high-end independent boutique properties, letting you earn and spend Hilton Honors points and enjoy your Hilton Honors status benefits at additional hotels.

Curio hotels are of a high standard but do not have to meet strict Hilton ‘brand standards’, allowing the operators to exercise their creativity. We’ve generally been very impressed by the Curio Collection hotels we’ve visited, and Rob has a very positive review from Reykjavik in the pipeline.

After reviewing The Westminster in 2021, I managed to review a further four of the London Curio hotels in 2023:

• The Gantry in Stratford (review)
• Hart Shoreditch (review)
• Lost Property St Pauls (review)
• The Trafalgar St James (review)

With the Canary Wharf site seemingly closed for good, this left only one hotel for me to visit – 100 Queen’s Gate. Hilton kindly arranged my stay for review purposes.

The hotel website is here.

100 Queen’s Gate location

The hotel takes its name from its address, located in South Kensington, West London. If you’ve never been to South Kensington, simply think of the most stereotypical London neighbourhood with tall whitewashed townhouses and leafy streets and you’ve got it.

The hotel, which comprises six interconnected townhouses, sits on the corner of Queen’s Gate and Old Brompton Road. (This is not the road Harrods is on, which is Brompton Road, although it is only a modest stroll away.) It is just a five minute walk from South Kensington Underground Station with access to the District, Circle and Piccadilly Lines.

The area is largely residential, with a variety of cafes, bakeries and restaurants on Old Brompton Road. Fulham Road is just a couple of minutes away.

However, the big attraction is the hotel’s proximity to the museums. The Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum are around eight minutes away. And, of course, you have Hyde Park and the Albert Memorial within reach as well – just walk to the top of Queen’s Gate and you’re in the park. The Royal Albert Hall is also walkable.

Inside 100 Queen’s Gate

As mentioned above, the hotel is a conversion of six townhouses. This gives it charm but, of course, causes some issues as we will see.

The main hotel lobby is on the ground floor of one of these townhouses:

There’s a stylish seating area on the left:

…. whilst check in desks are on the right:

Rooms at 100 Queen’s Gate

The hotel was clearly trying to impress because I was upgraded to one of the six duplex suites situated in the former attic of the building. (There are six because there were six townhouses.)

However, I also made sure to see an entry level room. The hotel has a significant number of room types due to the nature of the building.

It is important to note that some rooms do not have windows, or have internal windows or frosted windows. About 15-20% are so called ‘Atrium’ rooms. The bad news is that redemptions are likely to book into these Atrium rooms so this is not necessarily the best place to spend your Hilton Honors points.

The smallest room type is called a ‘Cosy Double’. This comes in a standard and ‘Cosy Atrium’ (no window) configuration. Due to high occupancy, the hotel could only show me a normal Cosy Double with window:

This room type is actually one of the hotel’s ‘old style’ rooms with old soft furnishings. They are slowly rolling out a new look with updated soft products, which they are required to do every seven years. That said, the room looked very smart and was very well maintained – I wouldn’t have known if they had not told me.

At 14-18sqm the room is undoubtedly cosy (albeit bigger than the capsule-style citizenM hotels) but you still have space at the far end for a seat and table:

…. and a small desk:

The bathroom features a shower:

That’s a Cosy Double. Small, although by London standards not excessively so, and you still get a desk, table and mini bar.

Suites at 100 Queen’s Gate

Let’s take a look at one of the Duplex Suites. This is a mid-tier suite – above a Townhouse Studio but below The Queen’s Gate Suite.

The selling point is obviously the unique duplex loft conversion. Each of these six suites is named after famous British people and I thought the ‘Blue Plaque’ signage was clever:

The room opens out onto a living space, with a staircase immediately to the right.

A large sofa-bed is flanked on either side by the mini bar. A stocked fridge is on the left whilst a kettle and Nespresso machine are on the right:

Opposite the sofa is a large TV as well as an armchair, and there is a padded bench in the window.

Speaking of windows, here is the beautiful view across Kensington. I felt like I had stepped into the Banks’ family home from Mary Poppins. You could even see Battersea and Westminster.

Head up the stairs and you’ll find the bedroom and bathroom.

Here is the view down to the living room:

The only thing looking a bit dated is the bathroom, which looks a little mid-2000s with the tiling and shower-above-tub combo. That said, it is clean and well maintained:

Toiletries are Molton Brown in wall-mounted pump bottles. They’re a little utilitarian:

The bedroom is next door and features pocket doors – helpful if you’re staying as a family and the kids are in the sofa bed downstairs.

There is a king bed with plenty of charging options on both sides:

The pillows supplied were quite thin – which I like – but are obviously not to everyone’s tastes. It would have been good to have two different types. The dressing gowns equally feel a little cheap and scratchy.

Opposite the bed is another flat screen TV. Annoyingly, we were unable to cast to the TV from our own devices. I queried this and was told that the hotel is in the process of switching to a new Hilton technology standard called ‘Connected Room’ which will allow you to control and cast to the TV as well as control air conditioning and other room functions from an app. In the transition, some of the functionality of the existing TV was switched off. Hopefully this is up and running soon, as I rarely find myself watching live TV these days.

A Velux skylight with electric blind brings some light into the space.

To the left of the bed is a small desk. I would have preferred a desk downstairs, in the living room window, but that presumably is less ideal when the sofa bed is in use.

Left of this is a walk-in wardrobe with storage on both sides:

Overall, the room feels very residential – almost as if you’re staying with friends. I’m not sure what it is – the stairs maybe? – that made it feel very homely.

Breakfast and dinner at 100 Queen’s Gate

Breakfast and dinner are both served in Cento, the hotel’s on-site restaurant. Before we get to that, I want to show you the very smart bar on the lower ground floor called ESQ:

…. and the lovely conservatory where afternoon tea is served. This was surprisingly buzzy.

Once you’ve had your aperitif you can head upstairs to Cento for dinner with its Mediterranean-inspired food. Starters are between £8-£12 whilst main courses vary from £13 – £23.

I went for the buratta on an ‘asparagus salad’ although mine, oddly, came with heritage tomatoes! I wasn’t bothered and raised this with the hotel afterwards to make sure their menus are accurate.

I then had the grilled sea bass with a side of grilled veggies:

The waiter told us that the bass, which was delicious, is cooked over an open flame. What’s nice is that the portions are not massive, although you do need to order sides as mains don’t typically come with any carbohydrates.

Breakfast is also served here and features a small buffet. There’s a small range of cheeses, cold cuts and yoghurt etc:

…. as well as bread and pastries:

The hot buffet features staple full English items, but nothing more. However, the fried eggs and scrambled eggs were excellent – some of the best I’ve had from a buffet – so I was perfectly happy:

Conclusion

What I like about the Curio brand is that each hotel can bring its own character, ranging from the industrial aesthetic of The Gantry and Hart Shoreditch to the modern take on traditional spaces at 100 Queen’s Gate.

By and large, I think 100 Queen’s Gate does a good job, although I would splash out for one of the larger rooms or suites. The public spaces on the ground floor are very well done. The rooms are stylish and exceptionally well maintained, with nods to the building’s history. Only the bathrooms feel dated, if only stylistically.

The only thing to watch out for is the room type you are booking, as not all rooms have windows. Fortunately, the hotel is very transparent about this and is clear during the booking process which do and which don’t. Anything with ‘Atrium’ in the name does not have an external window.

Rates currently start at £150 per night for a entry-level room or £500 for the duplex suite. Redemptions start from around 50,000 points per night, in line with our standard valuation of 0.33p per Hilton Honors point.

Given that this is one of the most expensive parts of London to live in, it’s a decent deal – especially as the location allows you to spend your time around Hyde Park, the South Kensington museums, Fulham Road and Kings Road without having to go near a tube or a taxi.

You can find out more, and book, on the Hilton website here.

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