The Pride of Paddington

On a busy corner near Paddington Station, The Pride of London is housed in a sturdy red-brick building with flower boxes and a green awning for outdoor seating at the on-site ground-floor pub. The pub is a traditional wood-paneled space with a flag-draped ceiling and chalkboard menus on the wall. The space is well-lit, with pine tables and chairs. A long, narrow staircase leads to the hostel, where there's a single common room -- a windowless, putty gray-walled, and narrow space crowded with black-leather furniture and a large TV. Guests at the Pride of Paddington tend to be students and others traveling on a budget for whom sharing a bathroom and sleeping in a bunk bed among strangers is not a deal-breaker, if the price and location are right.

Located in central London, The Pride of Paddington is a two-minute walk from Paddington Station, making it a draw for travelers using the tube to move throughout the city. From Paddington Station, travelers can catch the Heathrow Express -- a railway link to Heathrow Airport -- which takes 20 minutes. (By comparison, it's a 42-minute drive to Heathrow.) Kensington Gardens is a six-minute walk away, and Hyde Park is a 13-minute walk.  Edgware Road -- an area rich in history and Middle Eastern and African culture -- is a 10-minute walk away. The National Portrait Gallery and Piccadilly Circus are both an 18-minute tube ride away. Westminster Cathedral and the Houses of Parliament with Big Ben are about a 20-minute tube ride from the hostel.

Although there's one room with a double bed and a private bathroom at The Pride of Paddington, all four other rooms are dormitory style with shared bathrooms. The private room is painted pistachio green and has one window; it's just big enough for a double bed. Its bathroom is the biggest in the hotel, with a glass-doored walk-in shower, a toilet, and a sink. There are four other rooms: one with one set of bunk beds and a kitchenette with a sink and a microwave. The other rooms have lightweight aluminum bunk beds sleeping four, six, or eight guests, sometimes of mixed gender. Carpets in rooms are dark blue and the walls are decorated with stenciled illustrations of London attractions or a Union Jack print reading "Keep Calm and Celebrate" with a wine-bottle icon, reflecting the interests of some of its young adult guests. There are flat-screen TVs in each room, often mounted on chipped painted furniture. The shared bathrooms have gray or cream plaster walls with peeling paint, and windows with frosted glass, hindering natural light. Bathrooms have narrow, white fiberglass walk-in showers with glass doors. Some guests reported that the bathrooms could be cleaner and that the rooms can be noisy.

A hot, full English breakfast is included in room rates at The Pride of Paddington, and guests receive discounts for food and drink at the pub. Guests must either bring their own bed linens or put down a deposit to borrow some. Towels are available to rent and toiletries are not included in rooms, but they can be purchased at the front desk. Lockers are available, but guests must bring their own padlocks. Two of the rooms offer kitchenettes with sinks, microwaves, and some glassware and containers for limited food preparation. The hostel is staffed around the clock and reports it has a "secure entrance."