The Gateway Hotel

Excellent check in service. Arrived late at night as was easy to check in without reception.

Good location to get places, cozy room & very clean. Good facilities-iron, wardrobe, fridge in room, kettle/tea & coffee. Great shower although a wet room with shower curtain & floor flooded after shower & no mop. Very uncomfortable bed & flat hard pillows. We had a room in the basement, tbf we did request a ground floor room but neither of us could sleep as trains were rumbling away all night & very noisy traffic on main road. Also no breakfast, thought £110 a night pretty steep for room only

The Hotel is really nice. The reception guys very friendly and helpful. Our room overlooked the road. The room was spacious and comfortable with added touches such as a box of tissues, shower caps, hand wash and there was a TV and a fridge and a chair and plenty of room for clothes. It was spotlessly clean throughout. Lovely shower and comfortable beds. They provide ear plugs for the road noise but it wasn't at all noisy and we couldn't hear the traffic and we didn't need any ear plugs. The only thing you could hear was the faint rumbling from the nearby underground but that wasn't a problem. There is no breakfast but there are places to eat within walking distance. We stayed because we were going to a show in Central London and taxi's were expensive but we found out on our last day we could get buses back to the station and although we didn't use it the underground the station is a short walk away. My friend and I really enloyed it and were very puzzled by a couple of bad reviews which it certainly did not warrant. It was really lovely.

Reception - I walked into what seemed like a corridor with boarding up. I was ushered back to the entrance where I was advised there was a security card that I should pick up myself from the entrance with the instructions I had been sent by email. The security card was to give me access to a building and room to the very left of the main building. The welcome felt extremely cold and unfriendly. The room - Once in this other building the initial hallway was bright and freshly decorated, however the small hallway to the room I was given was boarded and grim. The room was clean and warm but was under ground level and had a very strange smell. If you looked up you could see the garage opposite on the road. There was no shower cubicle as shown on the website, just a rather grim looking shower curtain. The window had no locking facility. A friend came to meet me here who lives in London and was able to walk straight into the hallway and knocked on my door, so the security lock on the main doorway was not as it should have been at this time. I asked if I could be moved as I felt uncomfortable in a room like this where I felt there were potential security issues, I was told no, they were full. There is no Reception after 6pm at this place, just an 'emergency number' which added to my feeling of insecurity. I knew I couldn’t spend the night here. I found a lovely safe and comfortable room with an amazing welcome 15 mins walk away in Balham at 'The Bedford' which I would highly recommend, therefore I ended up paying twice for accommodation for the same night. I found this situation very stressful. I think this establishment is really just 'rooms' and they don't wish to speak to their customers. They should really be marketing it this way instead. Perhaps it shouldn't be called a hotel as it gives a false impression to potential customers that there will be a reception area with a pleasant welcome etc.

Black mould in all the showers. Cramped rooms with very flimsy cupboards. Ear plugs in each room because of the noise from the road outside the hotel. No staff to help you after 5pm - only contact is by cell phone. Awful, flat hard pillows. Terrible mattresses with springs sticking in your back

Comfortable double room at reasonable rate for London with good facilities, including parking and small fridge, in great location close to Clapham Common, with Underground station and many shops and cafes nearby.