David Whitehouse

There’s a reason (well, multiple reasons), why Hackney is our top area to stay in London. As soon as you’re there, you’ll get it. This extensive borough encompasses Shoreditch, Hoxton, Bethnal Green, Stoke Newington, Haggerston and even parts of Finsbury Park, making it home to a ridiculous number of our favourite restaurants, galleries, pubs and clubs. If you want to experience ‘cool’ London, this is by far the best place to start. Enjoy.  Our full guide to Hackney 🍴 The best restaurants in Hackney 🖼️ Our top fun things to do in Hackney 🍸 The coolest Hackney bars for a night cap Ella Doyle is a Time Out editor based in London. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. This article includes affiliate links. These links have no influence on our editorial content. For more information, see our affiliate guidelines. 🏘️ Fancy something different? The best Airbnbs in London📍 READ NEXT: Ultimate guide to London hotels

Need a place to stay in London? You’re in the right place. Every year, a wealth of new hotels open in the capital – a testament to the fact that London remains one of the most desirable places to visit in the world. That can, however, make it rather tricky to decide which to choose. But worry not: we have slept our way across the city and hand-picked our favourites, to bring you this ultimate list of London hotels, from Mayfair to Shoreditch and far, far beyond.  Newcomers to our list include a few hotshot openings – the likes of Six Senses, the Newman and Zetter Bloomsbury – as well as a plenty of old classics. We’ve made sure to include budget-friendly, family-friendly and tourist-friendly stays, and we’ve included our favourite spots to visit nearby too. This is Time Out London, after all. In other words, we’ve made it all rather easy for you. Thank us later: here are the best hotels in London.  🏘️ Looking for even more options? Check out our list of the best Airbnbs in London Which area is best to stay in London? That entirely depends on what you’re looking for. If you’ve got cash to splash and and want to be right in the thick of it all for sightseeing, theatre and royal parks, stay in the West End. Want to live like a local and try out the city’s best wine bars and small plates? Try Hackney. For a homely, family-friendly vibe that’s a little further out, try Walthamstow. Or for our full breakdown, head to our full guide to where to stay in London.  How we curate our

When the British Socialist Party held its annual conference in Bethnal Green Town Hall in 1920, it’s likely they didn’t talk much about the building one day becoming a luxury hotel. They had other things on their minds, like denouncing the party leaders as police spies. And they probably wouldn’t have been that into the whole hospitality idea anyway, what with it being a public space, and them being Marxists. I’m not saying the Town Hall Hotel, as it’s known today, would have changed their minds about all that. But I can’t help wonder, if they too had drunk Abacaxi Caipirinha in the wood-panelled council chamber, or eaten in a brilliant little Brazilian/Italian restaurant in what was possibly once the mayor’s office, if it might have given them pause for thought. Because for my money, The Town Hall Hotel offers a show of modest opulence seldom bettered in this city, one almost dizzyingly unique. Why Stay at Town Hall Hotel? A mad mixture of Edwardian architecture, art deco interiors, beguiling baroque corridors and memories of bygone bureaucracy, makes this is a hotel with that most meaningful of things - genuine, eccentric personality. Nothing here feels stretched for by stylists or led by committee. It’s like something Ken Adam might have designed to a Stanley Kubrick brief. A stay in the past of a different timeline, intoxicatingly charming, weird and special, before you even get to a fine roster of places to eat and drink, or your room. What are the rooms like at Town Hal