I spent two nights this week at
Express By Holiday Inn London-Earl’s Court, 295 North End Road, Fulham, London W14. My room was small, but a little larger than some rooms I’ve had at more expensive hotels. There was never a problem with noise. The “climate control” worked well. It was not possible to open the window, but then it wasn’t really necessary to open it. The shower floor was fibreglass or some such thing, not porcelain, and it seemed potentially slippery. Showering while holding on to something was a little awkward. Breakfast in the lobby was free and available from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. One could have cold cereal, yogurt, pastry, toast, tea, coffee, milk, and fruit juice. The internet connection was not free, but I was able to use the internet for free at a Starbucks up the street a few blocks. I would bring my laptop there for about an hour each morning. With a Starbucks card one could use the internet for free for up to two hours a day.
The hotel was an eight-minute walk from the West Kensington undergroud station (although in that area the train is not underground). North End Road is the main shopping street for a residential neighborhood where one sees relatively few tourists. The neighborhood appears to have been a comfortable middle-class and upper-middle-class area in the late nineteenth century. It probably declined in the mid twentieth century and then parts of it experienced some gentrification in the past few decades. Looking at ads in the window of a real estate agency, I saw that two-story townhouses are going for GBP 350,000 and three-story townhouses are going for GBP 500,000. There was quite a variety of people in the street. At the Starbucks up the street near St. John’s Fulham I saw some prosperous-looking young women some of whom were pregnant and some of whom had small children with them. I’d guess they’re the wives of young men with good incomes. Many parents walk their children to school in the morning. Around lunchtime I saw about a dozen teen-aged boys in blue blazers and grey flannel trousers, the sort of outfit I wore in high school. They probably attend the London Oratory School that is nearby.
I chose that hotel because it came as part of a package deal with the flight. A round-trip ticket with two nights at a hotel was more than $200 cheaper than a round-trip ticket!?!
