The Rookery
Style Period drama
Setting Clerkenwell’s gastronomic heart
The Rookery hotel has more character in its bathrooms than some hotels have in their entirety; its charms include artful Georgian styling and a location in restaurant-rich EC2.
Need to know
- Rooms 33, including three suites.
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Rates
Double rooms from $212.77 (£138), excluding tax at 20 per cent.
The price shown represents the lowest nightly rate for a double room available at this hotel over the next 21 days. Any price conversions from the hotel's local currency (£138) have been conducted using today's exchange rates from xe.com.
- Facilities Free WiFi and a stash of DVDs for guests to borrow. In rooms: flatscreen TV and minibar (superior rooms and higher come with a DVD player and iPod dock).
- Check-out 11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 2pm.
- Children Little Smiths are welcome; cots (free) for babies and extra beds (free for 15-year olds; £30 for older teens) are provided.
Food and drink at The Rookery
- Hotel restaurant There’s no restaurant, but you won’t feel the lack, given the wealth of dining options on your doorstep, and the hotel has a stash of takeaway menus. Breakfast is brought to guests’ rooms and spans pastries, cereal, granola, porridge and bacon sandwiches.
- Dress code Avoid anachronisms with a Georgian flourish or two: backdate your outfit with a corset, cravat, ruffles or a waistcoat.
- Last orders Breakfast is served from 7am until 10am.
- Room service Staff can rustle up items from a small but discerning menu. In keeping with the rest of the hotel, in-room offerings have a traditional British bent: ham and mustard baguettes, cheese and chutney, and pie and mash.
- Hotel bar There’s a spirit-stocked honesty bar tucked away in a cosy corner of the Conservatory.
The Rookery 12 Peter's Lane , Cowcross Street, London, EC1M 6DS
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Smith extra at The Rookery
For Club and Superior Double room bookings: a bottle of house wine; for Junior Suites and Suite reservations, a bottle of prosecco
In the know
Our favourite rooms
Mary Lane (a Superior Double) is set in the eaves, and has a low, beamed ceiling and a ruby-red complexion. Mary was a local servant girl who made good by marrying a diamond merchant; there’s even a portrait of her hanging by the glossy oak bed. Rook’s Nest has all the theatrics of a Poirot set: an ornately carved bed with black cherubs at its foot and a gilded faux bamboo frame; an Edwardian bathing machine on a raised plinth in one corner; a ceiling that moves at the touch of a button to reveal the spire above. There's no lift, so some rooms (such as the penthouse Rook's Nest) aren't ideal if you have trouble climbing stairs.
Packing tips
Remember geek specs and digital-print attire to blend in with the area’s glut of architects and graphic designers, and cat treats for Lady Grey (the resident feline).
