Staying in London just got more sustainable
London is always a good idea – but doing so sustainably is an even better one, which is why I was excited to see what London’s greenest hotel, The Corner London City had to offer!
The Hotel in the East of London promises stylish rooms for business and leisure, plenty of green credentials and a great location for exploring a bustling and vibrant area of the city.
Disclaimer: Although I stayed at The Corner London City Hotel for a PR trip, all experiences and opinions expressed in this blog are unbiased and 100% my own.
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What makes The Corner London City London’s greenest hotel?
It’s all very well going around saying that you’re the greenest hotel in London, but you need to have the evidence to back up those claims, right? Well The Corner London City doesn’t shy away from sharing all of the practices it has in place, in fact, you’ll find it all written on the wall in the hotel’s entrance. Here are just a few of the ways that the hotel is keeping it sustainable:
Sustainably sourced design
Throughout the hotel you’ll find plenty of cool and quirky furniture, but if you look a little closer you may well find that your lamp is a recycled hosepipe, of that chair in your room used to be a ladder.
Sustainably sourced design is just one of the ways that the hotel has been able to minimise it’s carbon footprint, whilst producing a very quirky and cool aesthetic.
Energy saving initiatives
The hotel has implemented a number of energy saving initiatives too. This includes energy efficient lighting, solar panels on the roof and CO2 emissions a whopping 62% lower than the industry average.
Simple things like these light switches in the rooms also encourage guests to use less energy. Have you ever been in a hotel room and tried every light switch to figure out which one does what? Yep, me too! By simply labelling them you find yourself only turning on the lights you actually need too. Plus having them all right next to the bed is super convenient!
Water saving by design
Keeping water consumption down is also a big focus at The Corner London City. All of the rooms feature innovative shower heads that mix air with water, whilst maintaining pressure, but reducing water usage by 25%.
My favourite water saving initiative though, has got to be the offer of a free drink at the hotel bar for skipping housekeeping for a day. If I’m only staying in a room for a couple of nights it’s not likely I need the towels or bedding changing, so I’m more than happy to forego that in exchange for a glass of wine! This is definitely something I’d love to see more of in other hotels.
Where is The Corner London City hotel?
The Corner London City can be found on Adler Street, which is in London’s East End. It’s a great central location for exploring areas like Spitalfields or Brick Lane on foot.
You can just as easily hop on the tube from Aldgate East which is a 5 minute walk away too. Find yourself at one of London’s many great attractions such as St Paul’s, the Tower of London, or Shoreditch within a few minutes, just tap in and out at the station using your bank card.
How to get to The Corner London City hotel
Driving around London city centre is definitely something to avoid, especially when considering the congestion charge, lack of parking and the charges for any spaces you do find!
You should definitely make the most of public transport such the underground and bus network. If you are travelling within zones 1-3 you’ll never pay more than £8.10 per day (at time of writing) when tapping in and out using your Oyster or bank card.
If you are travelling in from outside of London I’d recommend getting the train into one of the main stations such as Euston, then hopping on the tube to Aldgate East to reach The Corner London City. It’s also worth downloading the TFL app to help plan your tube journeys.
The Corner London City room review
I was really intrigued by the room design at the Corner London City when I first walked in! I’ve not seen a layout quite like it before, but the way the bathroom and bed are set up as a kind on ‘pod’ is pretty ingenious!
The bathroom is attached to the back of the very comfortable double bed, which makes much better use of the space than a separate room might, and leaves the room around the bed feeling spacious and airy. There are also lovely big windows and a lovely pop of colour from a bright yellow wall facing the bed.
Overall I’d say the the rooms at The Corner London City find a nice balance between quirky, colourful and cool whilst still being comfy and clean. Plus, as I’d mentioned further up, the design is packed with sustainable features, which is never something to complain about!
There was a lovely little welcome note, chocolates and a drink token for the bar in my room when I arrived which was a lovely personal touch. Although it’s just a small welcoming gesture, it’s something you often find gets lost in busy London hotels, so I was really pleased to see this!
In terms of facilities in the room, refillable water bottles are provided in the room. If you want tea or coffee you’ll have to take a short walk to the end of the corridor on your floor to the hot drinks machine. The drinks from the machine however were much nicer than anything you’d get from a sachet, and you can also get grab and go coffee cups to take with you. On the whole I think I prefer this option to the standard tea and coffee setup in most hotel rooms!
Inside the bathroom ‘pod’ things are just as bright and cheerful. The design again, focuses on clean, bold colours and shapes all underpinned with sustainable features.
The bathroom comes complete with fluffy towels and toiletries. Again, the shower gel, shampoo and conditioner from Gilchrist & Soames BeeKind range has recyclable packaging and the products support honey bee and sustainable pollination research at the University of California. Smelling good and doing good at the same time definitely gives you a buzz! (I’ll get my coat).
The Corner London City bar and restaurant
Dinner at The Corner London City hotel
The bar and restaurant area in the hotel lobby has a great chillout vibe, with more of the cool and quirky furniture but accented with soft mood lighting and lots of greenery dotted around.
As part of our stay we enjoyed a meal and cocktails in the restaurant. Whilst the menu isn’t huge, I think it offered a good variety of dishes, taking inspiration from a range of cuisines, from traditional ‘trad’ fish and chips to greek souvlaki. There’s even an entirely vegan section of the menu, meaning that everyone is catered for easily here.
Starter
For the started I went with a classic – fried calamari. This is a starter I’ve tried in several restaurants over the years, and it tends to be either really good or just plain disappointing. Thankfully, the calamari at The Corner London City falls into the really good camp!
The batter on the calamari was piping hot, crispy and fresh, with a nice zesty salad to compliment it and plenty if tartar sauce for dipping. I’d happily order this again!
Main
For my main I ordered the chicken souvlaki, which came with pitta bread, salad and olives.
This was another explosion of flavours and a really generous portion to boot. The chicken was nicely seasoned and had that lovely hint of chargrill flavour. Slightly larger pitta pockets to fill with chicken and salad would have been nice, but on the whole I really enjoyed this.
Dessert
The dessert menu again, wasn’t overly long or elaborate, but the essentials like cheesecake, brownies and ice cream were all there to choose from.
I went for the cheesecake (cheesecake is always a good idea after all), and this might just have been my favourite from all three courses. This wasn’t your run of the mill slice of cheesecake, it had that glorious homemade taste that you can only achieve by throwing a tub of marscapone and cream together and whipping it into a calorific dream. Even if you’re only planning on heading to the hotel bar, make an exception and stop for a slice of the cheesecake too.
Cocktails at The Corner London City hotel
There is actually a really impressive cocktail menu at The Corner London City’s bar. You’ll of course, find all of the expected drinks such as mojitos, pina coladas and cosmos on there, but there are also loads of exclusive cocktails that have been engineered by the bar team themselves.
We got chatting to the bar manager for a little while and it was great to hear some of the stories about how the drinks had been developed and added to the menu over time. Many of the drinks are twists on classic cocktails such as the good old Long Island Ice Tea, which had four new variations on the menu, using alternative flavours and liquors such as peach schnapps or Midori.
The bar staff seemed to take a lot of pride in their mixology technique too, which was really fun to watch, and the resulting drinks definitely hit the spot.
Breakfast at The Corner London City
In the morning, the bar and lounge area of the hotel lobby is transformed into a breakfast buffet feast. I was really impressed with the variety and quality of everything on offer, which included traditional cooked breakfast options as well as more continental choices such as cheese, cold cuts and salad.
If you prefer a no fuss breakfast there were simple options like bread, cereal, fruit and pastries too. The only thing I thought was missing was some little tubs of marmite, but it’s not something I’m too hung up on!
My favourite part of the breakfast buffet at The Corner London City has the be the pancake machines. There’s something about a machine that makes you two pancakes on a conveyor belt at the push of a button that really brings out the kid in you.
I got creative with the toppings from the buffet too and topped mine with some bacon and maple syrup. I was expecting the pancakes to be a novelty more than anything, but they actually tasted really good too.
Would I recommend staying at The Corner London City?
I really enjoyed my stay at The Corner London City, so I would absolutely recommend it, especially if you are looking for ways to travel more sustainably. Whilst there was the occasional teething issue with small things such as staff not being completely familiar with the menu or having issues with the wifi when I was working from the lobby, everyone who I interacted with at the hotel was super friendly and clearly wanted you to have the best experience possible at the hotel.
It’s definitely more of a relaxed setting, so if you’re after a more luxurious stay in London this might not be the best fit for you, but in terms of style, comfort and service there’s really not much bad I can say about The Corner London City!
Things to do in London near The Corner London City
I could write a list as long as my arm about all the great things there are to do in London and we’d be here all day, so here are a handful of recommendations from my weekend that were good fun:
- Visit some of London’s fantastic free museums and galleries such as the Natural History Museum
- Head over to Covent Garden and grab lunch at the Seven Dials Market
- Go for a walk or hire a pedalo in Hyde Park
- Head to Borough Market and discover your new favourite dish from the hundreds of street food, produce and bakery stalls.
Book a stay at The Corner London City
Booking directly through the hotel here will always guarantee you the best room rates. However, if you prefer to book your hotels through Booking.com just pop your dates in below and hit search.
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