HOTEL of the week

HUB BY PREMIER INN, KING’S CROSS LONDON

WHERE & WHY Hub hotels are cosy, compact pit-stops in the heart of major cities, with seven in central London and two in Edinburgh. They are urban hotels where location matters, not size. Rooms are cleverly crafted to make the most of the small space with the latest tech built into a (some-times temperamental) control panel in the headboard. Just don’t lean back on it or you’ll find all sorts being switched on and off! The double beds aren’t quite up to the comfort we have come to love from Premier Inn, but are adequate for a night. Standard rooms really are tiny but fine for one person, and the dual showers are really good. Free super-fast wi-fi and a free memory stick... but no kettle. Free coffee and tea downstairs in the bar though, so help yourself. Just seven minutes’ walk from King’s Cross and St Pancras International, the location is

ideal if you have an early Eurostar train to catch or need a stopover en route up north.

ON THE MENU Not much I’m afraid. A simple bar menu of ploughman’s, deli boards and sandwiches. Complimentary cheese board if you buy a drink during happy hour. And there are plenty of bars, cafés and restaurants right outside. Breakfast is continental, but eat as much as you like. These hotels are geared up for those who intend to be out and about

and just want a place to lay their head rather than dine in.

WHILE YOU’RE THERE Plenty of places of interest nearby, including the British Library and the Wellcome Collection on the Euston Road, The Foundling Museum and Charles Dickens Museum, both in Bloomsbury, and the London Canal Museum, a few minutes away. King’s Cross is no longer the rather scruffy foreboding area at night it once was. There’s the Shaw and Bloomsbury Theatres, the Gagosian Gallery, a great food market and wonderful Camley Street Natural Park, a wildlife and nature reserve smack bang in the middle of one of the most industrial areas of the city.

WAKE-UP CALL From €80...depending on room size. hubhotels.co.uk, 044 0871 527 9608

KAREN ROCKETT