The Gore, London, United Kingdom
The Gore 4 Stars
"The Victorian townhouse near Hyde Parks is classic English eccentric, bursting with character, warmth and quirky antiques."
The Press Say
"A remarkable 5000-odd antique pictures, prints, lithographs and oil paintings decorate the walls here from the entrance hall and reception area right along the hotel corridors, lending a wonderful quirky feel to this enchanting old English Inn." Lonely Planet 08
Hotel Overview
Review of The Gore, by Angela Moore
Sitting insouciantly on top of the reception desk at The Gore is a bust of Churchill, wearing a top hat. It sums up this hotel very neatly - a traditional English eccentric. The Gore has completed a sweeping £2.5 million revamp, which has left it looking very snappy and fresh. Happily, though, it has lost none of its character.
Downstairs, hundreds of framed sketches, oils, drawings and watercolours line the walls in the hallway and up the stairs. Good old Queen Victoria is a recurrent theme, staring sternly out of gilded frames or looking oddly coy in marble busts. Up the stone staircase, the helter-skelter of pictures on the walls thins out, replaced by the calmer effect of giant oils and tapestries.
In the small drawing room at the end of the hallway, one wall is lined with books, a collection to delight the most catholic of bookworms. You can sit on sofas by the fire and have tea while reading. This is the kind of place where you feel quite comfortable taking an armful of books up to bed or coming down to breakfast in your slippers.
The restaurant, 190 Queensgate, is a fairly popular bistro destination for Kensington dwellers and travellers in the know. The bar, though, is really hopping. It's a sexy, dark, wood-panelled room, with a long bar and a longer list of cocktails. Hidden away at the back of the room is a cosy hideaway, dramatically accessorised with scarlet curtains and a red velvet rope. You have to buy a bottle of champagne to take the space over for an evening, but given the crush in the main bar on a Saturday night, it's worth the investment.
The rooms are bursting with character and individuality. Each one has a slightly different layout and décor - smart slate blue walls and striped silk drapes, or peachy walls with a half-tester bed hung with pretty rose-printed satin to match the curtains. There are ornate gold-framed mirrors and interesting antique objects. Beds are all different but all have a dramatic carved wooden headboard, or a half-tester; there are also a few four-posters. They are genuinely comfortable and the linen is excellent at this luxury hotel. A standard double room has enough space to fit in a sofa and a desk and luxury doubles are much larger for not much more money.
For an especially decadent weekend, book the Venus Room, one of the best suites. The bed is fantastic: a four-poster in a black satin-covered recess, it has an ornate and gilded headboard and is hung with heavy red and gold fringed drapes. The bathroom boasts a marvellously kitsch tiling frieze of Venus steering a chariot through the waves and opposite the bed hangs a large painting of a fatly reclining nude. Exotic, with a touch of the bordello, and great fun.
Facilities
Hotel Policies
Rooms
50Who stays here?
Annie Lennox and Paul McCartney.
Come for...
- Antiques and lithographs
- The 100-year-old elevator
- Impeccable cocktails at the bar
Not Suitable for...
- Miminalists and modernists
Children
Children are welcome, and a cot can be provided in the room. The hotel also offers a babysitting service.
Eating in
The Gore's restaurant, Bistro 190 Queensgate, is a local beacon for good, straightforward Euro-food and an informal, lively atmosphere. At night, the pace picks up, a DJ plays and the bar turns into a bit of a party zone.
Reviews
Review of The Gore, by Joanna Monkhouse
The Gore has been a luxury hotel since 1892, but has been privately-owned and run since the early 1990s by a group of first-time hoteliers who have made a speciality out of Victorian eccentricity - a style that can be also be sampled at Hazlitt's in Soho and The Rookery in Clerkenwell.
Located on Queensgate, a wide tree lined avenue just south of Hyde Park and next to the Royal Albert Hall, The Gore is conveniently placed for the shops in Kensington, Knightsbridge and Chelsea, as well as the nearby museums and exhibition halls.
With their friendly and personal service, staff come to know the guests, as many come back to try out another of the highly original rooms.
The hotel's restaurant, Bistro 190 and the dark and cosy 190 Bar, are popular with locals and guests, especially at weekends. Meetings can be held either in the board room or in the Gore's inviting drawing room, the Green Room.
The Gore's 53 rooms are decorated with antique oak, walnut and mahogany furniture, oriental rugs and the extensive collection of 5000 antique lithographs and prints. Many rooms have four-poster beds and whilst some standard rooms can be small, the larger rooms have comfortable leather sofas. Some rooms on the first floor have French doors opening onto a balcony. All have a phone, TV, minibar and safe.
Most bathrooms have combination baths, gilt-framed mirrors and brass taps. Some have freestanding roll top baths with clawfeet, and those in the deluxe rooms are particularly impressive. This includes large alcove baths with dinner plate-sized shower heads and throne toilets.
The deluxe rooms at the Gore are named after the spinster sisters who ran the luxury hotel at the turn of the century - Miss Fanny and Miss Ada, and their brother Major Cooke whose room has a more masculine slant. The 'Venus' room hosts Judy Garland's carved and gilded bed and the bathroom's tiled mural was uncovered during renovations. The 'Dame Nellie' room has an alcove bed fit for a diva, with leopard print chairs and a bath flanked by classical bronze sculptures. The last reminder of the Elizabethan rooms that hosted mediaeval banquets in the 1950s is the magnificent Tudor Room with its beams, panelled walls and stained-glass windows. There are secret panels that lead to the bathroom and minstrel's gallery. In winter the fire is lit in the huge open fireplace.