Royal Court Aparments & The Paddington Hotel

Westerners beware!
The room was incredibly cramped (which is expected in Europe, but this was to the extreme). We had to move a nightstand before we could get into the room with our suitcases. The TV was a 13″ tube set. The décor was incredibly dated and worn, including the bedding. I could feel every spring in the mattress. The entire bathroom was the size of a standard bathtub. My knees hit the sink unless I sat at an angle on the toilet. I had to stand at an angle in the shower or my arms hit the walls when I moved. My wife found it impossible to shave her legs, so I was forced to endure the prickliness for a few days. You could hear every time someone entered or left the building, despite a fire door that separated us from the main hallway.
The free WiFi is only in the lobby and not in the hotel rooms that are located across the street. The staff requested that we return the key to the front desk each time we left the room and then pick it back up when we return (this makes zero sense on every level). The building also had no elevator.
The hotel was a convenient distance from the tube and the most cost-​effective place we stayed during our vacation, however I will spend the extra money and go someplace else next time. We stayed at 2 other places while in London and Paris and this was by far the worst place. If we weren’t out of the room so much, we would have canceled the room as soon as we checked in and saw it.

We booked on
and lucked out on the location so near Paddington Station. The express train from Heathrow is GBP26 and the hotel is a quick three block walk southwest.
Reception is on the west side of the street; the rooms are on the opposite corner. We had a spacious first-​floor room facing the corner. The décor was a little tired and the bathroom microscopic, but the bed was big and comfy and the fresh air through the window was pleasant. Oh, and we had great water pressure in the shower. Breakfast was included and though the room it’s served in is somewhat cramped the continental options on offer are plenty filling.
Gloucester Terrace wasn’t especially noisy and it’s an easy walk to Hyde Park and two different metro lines. I feel like this place was value for money.