Courthouse Hotel Shoreditch in Hackney

I was a bit unsure as the reviews were mixed. Please don’t be put off. This is a beautiful building. It has much interest and charm. If your young it’s in area of cool bars. It was not however noisy at night. The room is great and free water in fridge appreciated nice free toiletries and robes help the spa experience. I loved the spa and so easy to access till 11.00pm. I have recently had surgery to my face and biopsy and I could safely sit my feet in and keep the wound dry. All being well I cannot wait to return and use it fully. The temperature of the pool is lovely. Also spa, steam room etc. Linked to the facial surgery which I was of course self conscious about and needed to drink with a straw they got me straws and ice and I created an iced chilled coffee. As a coffee fan. It was a treat. As I could not have hiot drinks near the surgery site. The service was lovely and Andy in the restaurant gave us a personal tour of the rooftop. For photos. It would be good to return and try the cinema and boiling alley. I can’t forget the cells etc as they make fun photos! The bar area was lovely too with lots of lovely places to sit and nice wine and service. Just such a lovely, fun treat. I will recall wandering round the hotel with my youngest daughter having fun and actually a challenging time I unexpectedly had the surgery Monday and nearly cancelled the trip as I was uncomfortable and self conscious given I had a visible dressing on my face. I am glad I didn’t cancel as we go to West End live every year. This was such a lovely experience. It’s a shame it didn’t have a room Saturday and the more expensive hotel we went to after was not half as positive. Credit it were it is due absolutely lovely experience. Ps forgot to say breakfast was fab!

My daughters bought us an afternoon tea experience with Buy a Gift and we selected this place. What a mistake. This is the story of what happened… Firstly, it wasn’t possible for it to be served in the normal room due to heating problems. Ok, understand operational problems happen, but not ideal. Secondly, only one person seemed to have turned up for work to serve the tea. Whilst other staff eventually turned up, this led to a big delay before anything happened - around half an hour. The one staff member who was there said he thought the others had been out the night before and drunk too much…! Eventually, we were offered our champagne. This was not properly chilled, and I am pretty sure it was not champagne, but prosecco. Fourthly, when our tea turned up the tea pots had no lids so the tea got cold quickly. Fifthly, our food didn’t come for another 20 minutes and we had almost finished our tea and fizz - not only did we not get offered any more drinks of any kind, our waiter dumped the cake stand and ran off, while the waiter at the other table explained what was on the stand in detail to the other customers! Sixthly, we saw no more waiting staff at all! We have complained to the hotel - they haven’t bothered responding, despite being chased. This was the most appalling Afternoon Tea experience we have ever had. I highly recommend you don’t book it.