Michael S.
Yelp
The Oakley Hotel, in up-scale Chelsea, London, is a delightful and price-worthy alternative to both expensive boutique hotels and soul-less chain hotels. It is a great place to save money in a very expensive city.
It is an on-going home-grown renovation, a personal labor of love, a charming spot in which to settle whilst in London. If you are expecting a pricey high-end boutique hotel, or a cookie-cutter chain hotel, you will be disappointed by the one-off, quirky character of the Oakley. Think eccentric and adventurous, in a great location along the River Thames. This is your uncle's guest room, with a melange of furnishings and home improvements, with your aunt knocking about in the kitchen, and all your distant relatives chatting with you in the breakfast room. (For us, that's a lot of what traveling is about.)
The breakfast room is downstairs and some of the bedrooms are upstairs, so as there is no elevator (lift) please be clear when making reservations if you need a room on the ground floor.
Mass transit: it's in a central location, on the Thames, near the bus lines; 3 minutes walk to the cafes, restaurants, and shops of King's Street; a 10-15 minute walk to the Underground (South Kensington station).
At South Ken are FREE museums -- the Victoria & Albert, the Science Museum, and the Natural History Museum -- and venues -- the Royal Albert Hall, and the Royal College of Art -- and parks -- Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park -- and the shopping at the Kensington High Street.
Back to the Oakley Hotel: there's no coffee/tea in your room, but it's available 24/7 in the downstairs shared kitchen & breakfast room (where you may avail yourself of a tasty and satisfying breakfast of both cold items and staff-prepared English breakfast (check and be respectful of their operating hours, please).
Our four-poster bed was comfortable, the room was quiet, the view onto the street was interesting. It's not like any other place we've stayed, as the lodgings are a quirky renovation, with tweaks and modifications making things more than unique. Everything worked: the hot water was hot, the lights above the washroom sink were bright, and there were hangers in the closet.
It's hard to think of visiting London and *not* staying in the Oakley. I'm looking forward to our next visit.