New Cross Inn — Attraction in London

TL;DR: Don't bother. Horrendous accommodation. Very overpriced for the quality and cleanliness.

First impressions: We arrived at the side door and were greated by heckles from the inebriated chaps who were gathered on a nearby bench. We rang the doorbell and were granted entry to discover a hallway full of dirt and clutter. Rick was a pleasant host and check in was straight forward. We willingly paid our £10 cash deposit for the room key and we were shown to our room. Rick pointed out the facilities and he was very helpful and friendly. It was downhill from here.

Foisty Funky Five: Our expectations were low due to the price we paid. However, I cannot emphasise enough how disgusting this place is. The bedroom walls, door, window, fixtures and fittings were all rank with dirt, stains and marks. We found short and curly hairs in the bedding. The futon was full of suspect stains. The curtain was a foot too short for the window and was also disgusting with stains. The window sill was grotty and in disrepair. There was a band conducting a warm-up for their gig that evening in the bar below. The vibrations of this could be felt through the floor and this clashed with the din from a speaker which had been placed outside the hostel door.

Bathroom Bonanza: There were two bathrooms located just a short walk down the corridor. Again the walls are appallingly dirty and marked. Both bathrooms were in a poor state of repair. The furthest away from our room was the better quality of the two. However, it had no holder for the shower, the cistern lid was cracked in half and there was a sodden and stinky shower mat crumpled up behind the door. The other bathroom had holes in the toilet seat, a shower curtain full of mould, the extractor fan half hanging off the ceiling held on with masking tape and full of mould, and the shower head holder attached with tape. It also had a stinky soaked shower mat. It is hard to say which room smelt worse, they were pretty much on a par for their assault on our senses.

One Night Stand: We quickly dropped our bags and made a swift dash for closest boozer. We decided we'd give the place a chance. But knew we'd need to be seriously smashed to survive the night. Challenge accepted. We returned around midnight, closed the window and were thankfully drunk enough to manage to get our heads down. Unfortunately, the pub directly beneath our room is open until 4am, and once our skinfuls had worn off, regardless of the closed window, we were awoken by the noise and vibration. The room had also become uncomfortably hot and a few hours of ruinously broken sleep ensued. We went for breakfast up the street and decided that another night in this place could break us. We booked another place a couple of miles away and checked out. We advised the chap at reception that we were booked for another night but were leaving and asked for our key deposit back, he returned it without issue. It is worth noting though that he seemed entirely unsurprised we were going and made no attempt to ascertain the reasona for us doing so. But I suppose it would be fairly obvious to him.

Realistic: As previously mentioned I think our expectations were realistic about the quality of what we would experience at this hostel. However, it felt unsafe, unsecure, and unsanitary. There's clearly little to no cleaning that goes on and the upkeep of the establishment is extremely poor. We felt the need to bar the door with a chest of drawers at night (which revealed dust and grime behind where it was originally placed) as there was no additional internal security measure to secure the door. We felt the need to wear shoes when walking round the room due to putrid state of the establishment. I would imagine you can get better quality for less elsewhere. My advice would...

No guys. I did not like this hostel. And there are plenty of reasons.

It is smelly and dirty or, at least, not so clean. I still remember the first moment when I looked at the linens, there were dark curly hair –I am light brown and my hair is straight but what is more I hadn't slept in yet–. The floor was dirty with spots and hair.

If we consider the bathrooms, there are no windows, the showers are old, and if you want to mix cold and hot water at the sink hey, you can't, but you can choose between the cold faucet and the hot one. Not even during the middle ages.

There is not room for the guests: if it is a hostel, and it is supposed to host how many, 50 people? But the communal area has only 20-25 seats....OK thanks, I'll stand.

The WiFi is often missing. Especially in the rooms. In 2018 you know...

The breakfast, which is included in the fee, is nothing but cold milk with cereals, toasts with eggs and Nutella. If you are thirsty and you'd like to drink water (w a t e r) there isn't any. Go and buy it to Sainsbury's.

And please, wash the dishes when you finish breakfast. There is a green sponge waiting for you.

Let's talk about the noise. Yes, the noise. The hostel is situated close (above, precisely) a concert inn where EVERY night they play loud LOUD music until 2. Do you want to sleep? They provide you earplugs which are obviously unhelpful. Yes. What is more, when they play the drum everything in the room vibrates. I'll sleep when I am home, thanks.

You have to take a long journey to reach the city centre: I'm not demanding to sleep in Westminster Abbey but one hour tube is too much. We are tourists, not peregrines.

The street is not one of the best streets of London: I am a lonely traveler and If I tell you that I didn't feel safe I'm not exaggerating.

The staff isn't that bad but I will never forget when one of them suddenly unplugged my computer while I was in the communal area simply because the wire was crossing the door: maybe one plug more? Maybe ask me first?

Last but not least. I paid. And my money was real money. I slept in a lot of hostels and I can assure that there are better hostels at the same price.

Sorry, guys. But this is my experience. The silver lining was that I had to leave...

Things were so bad during my stay that I opted to leave early because I just couldn’t take it anymore.

Their hostel is dirty and desperately needs new flooring, paint, and repairs.

They have cheap wood flooring that is broken and damaged so badly it needs to be replaced.

When I was there, they had a broken window that they “fixed” by putting bath towels where the window wouldn’t close.

Then, someone randomly came in and took them away without telling us and nobody was downstairs so we were unable to get new towels.

The broken window issue got worse when someone decided to “repair” the window. He showed up, removed the window, realized he didn’t have the correct parts, complained that he didn’t have time to fix it because he had to go on an interview, and left with the window on the ground.

Their “fix” was then to put a blanket over the hole. After that, they fix was to cover the hole with plastic bags.

The next day I left a day early and the staff didn’t bother to care at all that a customer was checking out a day early.

Other issues:

They have bathrooms that don’t flush properly.

Staff disappears despite supposedly being on staff 24/7. When you buzz their button for help, nobody comes.

The bar next door is loud so be prepared for bad music late at night.

Their free breakfast is a joke. I showed up and it was like fighting for toast in a confined space. It honestly wasn’t even worth humoring.

Their walls were nasty, dirty, and in some cases showed signs of either mold or damage.

The rooms have sinks in them, which sounds like a way to reduce congestion in the showers. In reality, it’s someone spitting into a sink 3 feet from you head.

Their wifi was slow and bad. They need to pay for more bandwidth. I’ve been on trains with faster internet.

Overall, pay more and go somewhere else. It’ll hurt your wallet, but you’ll be happier. I’ve stayed at hostels that were excellent value and that I’d happily stay at again. This hostel was old, dirty,...