Hotel Review: Courthouse Hotel, Shoreditch.

I’m not usually one for ‘trendy’ hotels. I tend to go for classic or contemporary luxury hotels, and as such there may be a slight lack of variety on this blog. So I’ve decided to shake things up a little, starting with a review of a very hip and trendy hotel in Shoreditch that recently launched an even trendier rooftop bar; Courthouse Hotel. This five star hotel has everything you could want from a boutique luxury hotel, from the historic building and architecture, to the huge swimming pool and spa, and of course, the rooftop bar.

I tested the Courthouse out one weekday night after work, and was pleasantly surprised by this whole trendy hipster hotel thing. Not to mention getting to work the next morning was a breeze – just a 20-minute direct bus ride to my office in Covent Garden.

The hotel is housed within the old Old Street Magistrates’ Court and the police station, and they’ve done incredibly well to include this in the design details. The breakfast room is in the old Courthouse room itself and throughout the breakfast room and the downstairs of the hotel, they have kept the original wood paneling, floor tiles, and elaborate stained-glass windows.

 

Also on the ground floor is the Jailhouse bar, located in the old jail cells of the police station side of the building. The cells these days are pretty swanky, and you can hire them out for small groups (including the one the Kray twins shared). Even the cocktail menu is jail-themed!

 

As well as the three different bars (including the rooftop bar which you can see in the photo below), the hotel also offers a swimming pool and spa, a 196-seat cinema (available for private hire), a two-lane bowling alley, and a well-equipped gym.

 

The room itself was large and contemporary with everything you could need, and the WIFI is free which was great. The bathroom was a little bit cosy, but felt luxurious and had a huge shower. And hello, look at this incredible view over the city and rooftop bar!

Breakfast is a selection of fruits, pastries, cereals, and cooked items. Unfortunately now that I work at Google I’m a bit spoiled when it comes to breakfast. I honestly feel like no hotel breakfast will ever be quite as exciting after the past two months of Google brekky’s. I mean, at work every morning we literally have a hotel breakfast buffet in steroids; fresh omelettes, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, poached eggs, hard boiled eggs, two different types of bacon, pork sausages, veggie sausages, grilled tomatoes, plum tomatoes, baked beans, hash browns, cheeses, meats, yoghurts, cereals, five different types of bread, every fruit you can imagine, two different types of porridge, seeds and nuts, OJ squeezed in-front of your very eyes, and a cacophony of pastries (they even have cheese straws!).

So yes, unfortunately I will never again be able to accurately describe how incredible a hotel buffet breakfast is. Sorry.

The Courthouse Hotel in Shoreditch is perfect if you’re after a hotel away from the main centre of London and somewhere a little closer to the city and the trendier parts of London. And that rooftop bar is a reason to go even if you’re not staying at the hotel!