The Travel Critic

When you’re nipping into London for a quick overnighter, location is everything. Schlepping across the capital like some 18th-century explorer, map in hand, is a waste of valuable time you could be spending doing literally anything else. So, you want a hotel near a major tube station—a station that’s basically a public transport Swiss Army knife. Ideally, one on the Elizabeth Line, because let’s face it, that’s not just a tube line; it’s a shimmering, futuristic ribbon of joy. And the Andaz at Liverpool Street? Well, it ticks the boxes. All of them.

The location? Couldn’t be better. It’s so close to Liverpool Street Station you might as well be sleeping on platform 6. A hop, skip, and a tap of your Oyster card, and you’re plugged into London’s arterial flow. And that Elizabeth Line? A direct link to Heathrow in under an hour. It’s like magic, but with fewer rabbits.

The hotel itself, however, is a tale of two halves. The reception is all glossy modernity, with funky lighting, bold colors, and a reception desk flanked by a bar-slash-DJ booth. I mean, sure, it screams “cool”—but cool in the way that a middle-aged dad buying skinny jeans does. As someone whose musical preferences lean more toward melancholic Americana than Ibiza anthems, I admired it from a safe distance. It’s not really a “pint of Guinness and Radiohead on the jukebox” sort of vibe.

But then, ascend the staircase, and you’re suddenly in the 19th century. The grand old part of the building is pure Downton Abbey—a sweeping staircase, polished wood, and a sense that Lord Grantham might descend any moment, perhaps to order a Pornstar Martini while nodding along to a lo-fi remix of “Chilled Ibiza Classics.” It’s an odd juxtaposition, but it works, in a slightly disorienting way.

The rooms are modern, dark, and moody, though they’re starting to look like they’ve seen one too many late check-outs. The wooden floor has lost its sheen, and the overall vibe is more “stylish city pad circa 2012” than cutting-edge 2024. But the bathroom is clean and functional, the bed comfortable, and the amenities solid.

Would I stay again? For the location, absolutely. For the DJ booth? Perhaps not. But if Andaz gave the rooms a little spruce-up to match their killer postcode, it could go from “good enough” to genuinely great. Until then, it’s a perfectly decent base for when schlepping across London is firmly off the cards.