Your Central London Home Base

A GREAT CENTRAL LONDON LOCATION FULLY EQUIPPED FOR SIGHTSEEING OR BUSINESS VISITORS. 10 minutes walk from Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, St. James Park, Horse Guards Parade, this self-contained and fully equipped studio flat is ideally located to be a really central pied-a-terre for visitors to London.

The London flat is a studio on the fourth floor of a secure block with video entryphones and two lifts looking out over a quiet pedestrian passage. It consists of:
•A small entrance hall with a coat cupboard and big shelf over it to store your suitcases.
•A separate kitchenette with electric hob and a combi microwave/oven/grill, refrigerator, clothes washing machine, Nespresso machine, toaster, electric kettle, and all china, glass and cooking/dining equipment necessary.
•The fully tiled bathroom has a full length bath with thermostatic shower, hand basin and WC.
•The flat is comfortably furnished for two people, with one USA queen-size bed. There is also a choice of automatic air mattress or foam floor mattress suitable for one child/young teenager for shorter stays. We regret that we will NOT accept requests for three adult guests as the space is really too small for comfort.

There is hanging space, shelves and drawer space. There is an iron and ironing board, a hair drier, basic sewing kit, radio, Bluetooth music system, Smart TV with Netflix and Chromecast.

For business travellers there is workspace with a full-size/height writing/typing desk, computer monitor, ergonomic desk seating, high speed fibre optic internet (100Mbp), and a WiFi and Airprint all-in-one printer/copier/scanner. Also a X-cut shredder so you don't have to travel on with confidential trash. There are power adaptors for all international plugs, and integrated USB sockets in wall electric outlets. There is a post-office and UPS/DHL/FedEx courier services agency available just round the corner.

There is good central heating and hot water. The block is not centrally heated in the summer; there is a silent ceiling fan, and the Dyson electric fan converts between heater in case of cold days, and cooler for the occasional British heatwave. The rent includes heating in winter, hot water, electricity, linen and high-speed broadband connection.

There is excellent easy shopping 5 minutes away on Victoria Street: Waitrose, a Marks and Spencer with good food hall and groceries, the usual High Street stores, supermarkets, fast-food outlets, take-aways and some nice pubs mean you can get meals and other necessities pretty much 24/7. There is also a great range of up-market (including Michelin-starred) restaurants nearby if you are looking for fine dining.

For exercise-lovers, you are three minutes jog from the contiguous green areas of St.James' Park, Green Park and Hyde Park with great 5, 10, 20 k circuits. There is a Pilates mat in the flat and also a Bikram Yoga centre in the next block. A public swimming pool open from early morning till late in the evening is just 10 minutes walk away. No smokers, no pets.

Buckingham Palace, St James'Park, Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament are literally 5-10 minutes walk away. Trafalgar Square (National Gallery) and Piccadilly Circus (shopping on Piccadilly and Regent Street) are 15 minutes’ walk. Theatres for plays and musicals are about 20 minutes’ walk, in the Haymarket and Leicester Square area - just beyond Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square.

There is the full range of high street shops on Victoria Street, for clothing, food, toiletries, cellphones. A 15 minute walk across St. James’ Park brings you to the wide range of more fashionable shops on Jermyn Street, Piccadilly and Lower Bond Street - from Fortnum and Mason’s superb food store to Hatchards bookshop. Stop off at the Royal Academy for an exhibition on your way, or pop into either the Ritz or the Fountain Bar at Fortnum’s for a classic English tea (better to reserve in advance).

There is a wide range of convenient eateries – mainly in the Victoria Street direction: The Ivy, Starbucks, Pret-a-Manger, Wasabi, Pizza Express, etc. The flat is surrounded by cafes and local pubs that also serve food. On and near Strutton Ground pedestrian street you can easily find a quite nice Italian restaurant, several delicatessens, a wide variety of food tents at lunchtime and some cafes (where you can get cheap and very sustaining full English breakfasts).The Nova centre (10 minutes’ walk) near Victoria Station has a wide range of restaurants.

If you want more upmarket dining, the St. James Hotel on Buckingham Gate at the intersection with Petty France has the Michelin starred South Indian restaurant “Quillon”, that we can certainly recommend, Zander’s – “the second longest bar in London”, and the “Courtyard at 51” for outdoor summer eating. The Cinnamon Club on Great Smith Street is another good modern Indian restaurant. St. Ermin’s Hotel just around the corner on Caxton Street has a nice cosy bar with open fireplaces. We can also recommend the Chinese restaurant Noble Palace, just out the back door of the flat – pricey but very good (with special Dim Sum).

Wilton Road behind Victoria Station has a lot of very good reasonably priced restaurants: Lorne, About Thyme, A.Wong (Michelin 2 star) are some of our favourites.

The flat is within 4 minutes easy walk of ST. JAMES PARK Underground (Tube) Station on the District (Green) and Circle (Yellow) lines. The number 11 bus runs very close by along Victoria Street. This is a really convenient main bus route that can take you West to Sloane Square and the Kings Road, and East to Trafalgar Square, The Strand and Fleet Street – It is almost worth taking just for the sight-seeing along the route from the top deck of a double-decker. There is a London Taxi Cab rank nearby at the intersection of Caxton Street and Buckingham Gate, which generally has one or two taxis. Otherwise you can normally catch taxis very easily on Victoria Street. In addition to the Uber and Gett aps, there are several private mini-cab services and we can give you details for best-priced airport transfers.