Best Western Premier Shaftesbury Kensington Hotel

In the heart of Princess Diana's neighbourhood...

London is one of the world's cities where there are the most hotels. Here, more than elsewhere perhaps, the differences between establishments are comprised of those infinitesimal details to which discerning travellers are sensitive: the day-fresh fruit and flowers provided in your room, the maitre d'hôtel who greets you in the breakfast room extends a true welcome in the noblest sense of the term, leading you graciously to your table before showing you the buffet of which he is justly proud, or the high-quality newspaper delivered to your door at dawn. The management and staff of the Best Western Premier Shaftesbury Kensington Hotel are all fervently committed to upholding this attention to detail, convinced that it is essential to truly top quality hospitality.

The hotel is moreover exceptionally well located on Hogarth Road, a few minutes' walk from Hyde Park. Hogarth Road is one of those distinctive curved streets that form a crescent shape and which are characteristic of many English towns, adding a unique touch to the urban landscape in the same way the grand old Victorian houses, trees and varying expanses of manicured lawns also do. On the subject of grass and gardens, one of London's authentic hidden treasures, the Roof Gardens, lies just a stone's throw from the Best Western Premier Shaftesbury Kensington Hotel, behind the very ordinary-looking front door of 99 Kensington High Street. The rooftop gardens cover some 2000m² and were originally located on the roof of a famous London store, since disappeared, Derry and Toms. Once over the threshold, you will be confronted with the amazing sight of gardens laid out on different themes: Spanish, Tudor, English, suspended some 30 metres above street level and made up of a hundred or so trees, fountains and pink flamingos who even have their very own river and pond.

The hotel is very near another of London's emblematic symbols, Earls Court Arena. The venue of the largest exhibitions and concerts held in the capital for the last 70 years, it was also the scene of the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show in the 19th century and will host the volleyball competition during the 2012 Games.

The hotel's guestrooms, equipped with characteristic sash windows, make it eminently clear to guests that they are in the land that coined the expression "Home Sweet Home". Cosy, welcoming, thoughtfully laid out and, of course, well stocked in all those little comforts that make daily life more pleasant and that will ensure that you make the most of your stay, whatever the purpose.

Before her wedding to Prince Charles, Diana lived not far from the Best Western Premier Shaftesbury Kensington Hotel in a modest flat, moving afterwards to nearby Kensington Palace when she became Princess. The name Kensington comes from the old Saxon word "Censiginga tun" which literally means "village or enclosure of Keen-Victory's people". The district is dotted with places that the Princess was particularly fond of and which Londoners have not forgotten: the gym on Earls Court Road, the Sticky Fingers restaurant that belongs to former Rolling Stone, Bill Wyman, and just opposite, the Patisserie Parisienne and, of course, her former flat on the corner of Old Brompton Road and Redcliffe Gardens. For many locals, this memorable past is now part and parcel of the neighbourhood's soul.

Best Western Premier Shaftesbury Kensington Hotel

33/37 Hogarth Road, Kensington, England, GB, London, England - SW5 0QQ

Phone: +44 (0) 207 370 6831 Fax: +44 (0) 207 745 1242