YHA London St Paul's Hostel

I slept for two nights in this hostel and I had a great time. I would like to talk about the best part right away: the location was perfect, very central and around the corner there is the majestic St. Paul's Cathedral. The guys at the reception were helpful and kind (I think one of them also speaks French). My room was a female one, with 8 beds, it was in a part of the building without air conditioning and it was a bit hot in July, but bearable thanks to the fan in the room. I appreciated the fact that they let you choose the bed, mine was clean and tidy, but the two USB sockets didn't work... in the room there were also long lockers where you could store your things, if you wanted you could even fit 1/2 suitcases since they were very spacious (but there is also a luggage storage), just remember to bring the padlock since it is not included. As for the bathrooms, I always found them clean, too bad there was no hairdryer. The wifi was only in the common areas and sometimes it disconnected. I didn't I had breakfast so I don't know what it was like. To sum up: apart from the sockets, the hairdryer and the wifi, as my first experience in a hostel I would absolutely recommend it.

Took a group on a school trip. The checking in and out process was straightforward and they had good safeguarding processes in place. The rooms had everything we needed and some good facilities. The food hall was perfectly placed and the breakfast and evening meals were great. Both the variety and value were great and the quality of the food was especially high. The children especially enjoyed the choices at breakfast. We also had afternoon meals provided and these consisted of shop bought sandwiches, crisps and fruit. This was absolutely perfect for what we wanted and needed. Great location close to transport links and the children enjoyed being so close to key landmarks.

Great location. Clean and neat hostel. I loved the carpeted floors. The shower rooms and toilet rooms were clean. Room is clean and neat. Beds are comfy but do not have curtains for privacy. The receptionists are helpful friendly and welcoming. The hostel doesn’t have lifts but there is a luggage storage room.

Nice accommodation.The only thing to note is that the bells of St. Paul’s Cathedral ring every 15 minutes. The sound is quite loud and may affect your sleep. I was awakened several times.

The hostel itself sucks. I've been a nomad traveling for 5 years so I've stayed at hundreds of hostels. Checkout is at 10:00 a.m. which I didn't know I was out before 11:00 a.m. but was just charged $8 late fee? The room's also really sucked in that there was no place to sit down. Not even a single chair + 75% of the USB ports did not work and each bed gets too so some of the beds don't have any power at all to the USB. The showers are literally so small that you can't bend over to wash your feet and legs literally.

If you want to sleep, avoid this place. I paid £100 for a private room, thinking that it will be basic, but it was literally impossible to sleep. There were teenagers yelling in the hallway at 01:30 in the morning (no one keeping them in check). The private room was situated directly next to a corridor door, which was slammed shut regularly, with a loud bang making the room shake. The windows don’t shut properly, and a car alarm went off repeatedly throughout the night under the window, and you could hear everything off the street. The worst nights sleep I have ever had at a hostel or hotel. I understand there are some things that cant be helped, such as the church bell, but the accommodation could do a-lot more to mitigate the other problems Get better windows, get rid of pointless corridor doors that just add extra noise. Keep large groups of noisy teenagers on their own floor. I paid for somewhere to sleep, and I did not receive that for my money. Total waste (unless you are going out in a night out and are going to be noisy yourself)

Great quality-price option in Central London, everything was clean and great service from the staff. The breakfast is also great and relatively inexpensive compared with other alternatives nearby

Pleasant hostel with a family room. Very central. Lovely breakfast. Remember it’s a hostel and not the ritz. Basic but totally perfect.

Not bad for a youth hostel. I booked a two-bed private room for my friend and myself to split. It was comfortable enough, and it was nice having a wash sink in the room so that we didn't need to go to the shared toilets every time we needed a sink. The beds had built-in power outlets, however they didn't really work well. We ended up using the wall outlets to charge our electronics. We were also right next to the showers but one of them was out of order. The toilets were at the end of the hall but one of them was out of order as well, so I ended up needing to wait for one to become available a couple times. It wasn't too noisy considering we were facing a busy street and some people complain about the bells coming from St. Paul's being distracting as they ring essentially every 15 minutes, but I got used to it pretty quickly and was able to sleep just fine. Wifi is only available in the shared spaces and not the rooms, so that might be difficult for people who rely on wifi connection. We didn't take advantage of their breakfast offerings, though they seem to have a nice variety of hot and cold food to choose from. They even seemed to have a couple vegan items that I could have eaten, but I wasn't going to pay nearly £10 just to only eat like two items. Check in and check out were easy.

Cozy YHA in a nice location. Right by St. Paul's Cathedral and across the Thames from the Tate Modern. Convenient to the tube and many restaurants. Seems like a very safe area as well at night. Breakfast is included here, kind of like cafeteria style, but still a good deal. Some of their beds are interesting, in these wooden frames up off the ground that you can put things in , like books you are reading, glasses, etc.. Would definitely stay here again...great price for cool location!

Excellent location to the cathedral. I enjoyed the surrounding area and would recommend this facility. Everything is very basic, some sinks do not have soap so be prepared. But the bed is comfortable and warm cover. Charging area right next to each bed which is great and individual lights as well. Not much more to say but if you're looking for basic yet comfortable this is good!

By far the worst YHA experience I have had. Everything was quite disgusting. The rooms were large, but the layout was strange. No, not strange. Terrible. Absolutely terrible. You could literally just sit in your bed while looking to everybody else. The communal area was pretty decent, but not as cozy as the YHA Central location. Bathrooms were unclean as well. Did not want to take any baths in there. Luckily for me, I only slept there one night.

Okay, I know friends who refuse to stay in any sort of hostel after watching the movie (you know who you are...) but seriously, YHA St. Paul's MADE my visit back in 2006...so much so that I had to move here two years later! I've stayed in some shite hostels before, but this is by far the best. It has a beatiful double staircase going up to the bedrooms, it's a clean very well decorated hostel...friendly without being scruffy, classy without being snobby. The hostel staff is also quite nice, as we arrived at about 3 am and were on American time, and so sat up with the dorrman and drank a beer :) As far as the rooms, I was in the single-gender dorm with 5 beds and met some really nice and cool people. Honourable mention goes to the Australian triathalon winner and the Italian girls who used me to work on their english and grill me about America (Don't worry, I assured them that we hated our President at the time too :) Breakfast was free everyday, and you could get a lot of it! My friend and I ate a huge breakfast, grabbed extra fruit, yogurt and croissants, wrapped them up and had lunch cheap :) The bathrooms weren't great, but they weren't the worst I've ever seen. They were clean, they were functional, they served their purpose. And the sink in each room helped, I never had to wait for a bathroom. You really can't get a better location for this...listening to the bells of the cathedral and strolling to Millenium bridge every morning just made me fall head over heels in love with London. It's a safe area, and it's quiet for when you've exhausted yourself from walking from the tower to pimlico and back. If you want a crazy party hostel, this won't be for you, but for those wanting a clean, safe and quiet place to stay in the heart of London, I'm betting you'll love this place as much as I did!

Pro: -Close to station of both Central and District Lines in Zone 1. -Very friendly staff. -Clean with TV in dining area -cheap Con: -No WiFi inside the rooms. -Hallway smells like pesticides :( -Dorm rooms are pretty dated, it needs a renovation. -the 3 bed bunk design is new/strange but it works I guess... -strange shower room... Overall, for the price. It was acceptable.

Maybe coming from the United States has made me accustoned to decent customer service and adequate facilities, but regardless there should never be any disrespect nor negligence on the part of the host. That being said, this is the absolutely worst hostel I have ever stayed in. To start things off, I was unable to take a shower on my level because the light had gone out. I asked the staff and instead of simply changing the light bulb he told me to go upstairs. Going upstairs, my key card did not work and I returned to the lobby to gain access. He 'programmed' my card by typing some things into the computer and when I went back upstairs, my key card still did not work. I gave up on taking a shower. Breakfast was decent except for the horrendous service of the staff who gave me an attitude when I asked for a third round of food. I said good morning, thank you, please, and all sorts of customary politeness to which the African server only grunted (he got angry when I asked his name and yelled at me in front of all the guests in the kitchen). I asked to use the internet and paid to use the computer. Being adept in computer devices, I tried 3 browsers and could not access the basics of Facebook, Google Drive, etc. When I asked the staff for assistance they only said to try another computer, to which I proceeded to attempt the same thing with 3 other computers. The reason none of them worked is because the staff had failed to update the software. Checkout time is 10am which is completely ridiculous. Find a hotel or a better hostel, this place makes no effort

Booked a stay for my last night in London after exploring the neighborhood around St. Paul's. The exterior of this place is gorgeous on a sunny afternoon. A cool guy from India working the desk at night told me that the building originally housed the St. Paul's boys choir. Although the place could have used some renovations and updates, it's not the worst place to stay. However, there was a rat or mouse in the room tempted by some sweets a girl in the dorm left out. With that, and some rude fellow bunkmates, I did not get much sleep.