Georgian House Hotel — Hotel in London

WIZARD AFTERNOON TEA at PIMLICO PANTRY

*(I was unable to leave a review for PP specifically, so please note I have not been in any of the hotel rooms or stayed overnight and therefore cannot comment on the accommodation)

I was disappointed by our Wizard afternoon tea experience at Pimlico Pantry over Halloween weekend. On the surface, everything looks great, but I felt a real lack of atmosphere and professionalism.

We excitedly discovered the way to the pantry for ourselves (no reception by the entrance), and then were seated by a friendly member of staff in an extremely quiet pantry. There was another table seated, but they were not chatting. Whilst of course that isn't the hotel's fault, there was no music playing whatsoever, which would have added to the atmosphere and made our arrival feel less awkward. 'Spooky' music was put on eventually, but this wasn't until about an hour into our visit, after we had eaten, and were mid-way through our 'potion making experience'.

On that note, when emailing with the pantry team upon booking, I was advised that this experience would take 40-45 minutes. It took my 5 year old less than 15 to make two mocktails.

The food was ok. More could have been done to make the children's Wizard afternoon tea feel more on theme. There was a small plain chocolate muffin and a regular ring donut, but a slightly more interesting pink and green cake which sadly wasn't to my 5 year old's taste - I didn't particularly like it either - but everyone is different! I also felt more sandwiches could have been provided in the adult's afternoon tea. The scones and their accompaniments were fine.

Although for the most part friendly and polite, staff were not very informative. It seemed the lady who seated us was new to the team and whilst she couldn't remember what food would be served in the afternoon tea, it didn't matter as she was so friendly, approachable and attentive. Another member of staff was perhaps having a bad day as she was very quiet and unenthusiastic. Another lady served us the potion experience at the end which she did explain well. She also brought us our bill and was very nice and remained as professional as possible about the card machine not working. However, she disappeared and we waited around for a while before asking another member of staff what was happening.

In the end we were taken upstairs to pay in the main hotel. However the deposit I paid when booking had not been deducted so the bill needed to be recalculated (manually), and the table who left before us also had the same issue.

I would also add that it was evident that some hotel employees (although not in uniform) were working on laptops around a table in the main lounge area where we were waiting while the bill was being recalculated, and it felt a bit like we had intruded, despite it being a public area. I feel hotel staff working at computers - management or otherwise - should be a bit more 'behind the scenes' if not at a literal reception/concierge desk, as it took away from any magic the hotel could offer to non-overnight guests, and felt unprofessional amid the high-end decor.

I will say, however, that Georgian House were faultless when emailing me about our booking, prior to our visit. Very polite, helpful and thorough, and speedy response time!

All in all, I feel the Wizard afternoon tea and potion-making was overpriced for the experience we had. We may have just been unfortunate and others may have a positive experience, but I would have expected the staff to have been even more aware of the service they were delivering over the Halloween weekend. Sitting in a silent room for the most part was so disappointing, and just ensuring the music was playing throughout would have made such...

We stayed in the Enchanted Chamber the week before Halloween. My friend and I love all things “wizarding” and agreed to splurge a little to keep with the theme of our London trip.

Overall, it was a whimsical room in a great location so we were happy! But I do want to confirm/echo a few concerns that other guests mentioned in their reviews that should be taken into consideration before booking. 4/5 stars for me because of the bathroom. The rest I could deal with because of location and staying in what felt like a historic and cramped city.

First off, we were not traveling lightly because of an extended UK vacation. We had a difficult time getting our bags down the very narrow stairs to the basement. I forgot to take a picture of our stairs, but attached a picture of the ones to the upper rooms which are just slightly wider. The ones to the Enchanted Chamber have lots of artwork on the walls which made it hard to juggle our bags and not knock them off. For anyone with unsteady footing, I would not recommend.

The key to the room is a beautiful old metal key but a bit hard to use functionally. The lighting was very dim, mainly because of the bulbs that were placed. A quick change from Edison type to soft white would correct this.

The room was small, but wonderfully decorated! We loved the tapestry on the wall and all the knick-knacks on the window shelf. Thankfully, the colorful glass helped block the not-so-nice view out of it. It would have been nice to have a more functioning chair (it’s too old and rickety to sit in) and get rid of the unused trunk at the foot of the bed for more space. It was incredibly hot and stuffy and we couldn’t figure out the heating system, so we left the windows open the entirety of our stay. Also, linen exchange or something like it came every morning right by our courtyard window and was extremely loud.

Ok the biggest bummer for us was the bathroom. It is a literal closet.. the sink blocks half the toilet so it can be hard to even sit down. And the faucet is incorrectly sized. This is a big issue that definitely needs to be fixed. I saw another review from 5 months ago that said the same thing and the hotel responded that they would consider improvements but so far have not. The faucet is too long for the sink, so the water comes out basically at the lip of the bowl and splashes everywhere. There has to be another fixture that can be easily swapped out to correct this for sanitation. There is also no fan in the bathroom to help with moisture control and a very foul smell coming from the shower drain. And no handles to help close the doors while in use or locks on the inside for privacy!

To end on a more positive note, we did love having access to all the HP movies and the fun coins for treats in the shop. The hotel was decorated so lovely, and the breakfast was fantastic. The location was superb and the staff was all...

My hubby for Christmas brought a wizzarding experience stay. I was super excited being a massive Harry Potter fan and this would have been our first date in over 2.5 years due to having a little one. Prior to our stay I tried to call the hotel to enquire about parking, I tried at least 8 times to call with every attempt ringing out. I then emailed them directly and never got a response. On arrival the hotel is lovely and the staff were very friendly and accommodating. We were given a lovely little red pouch with silver and gold coins, a cute nod to wizzarding currency which we could use to by some snacks. We booked a Harry Potter/wizzard themed room, as lovely as it was I wouldn’t say it’s massively Harry Potter themed and we both felt disappointed as this wasn’t a cheap stay £299 for a single night. There was some lovely welcoming touches which include some free fudge and a bottle of Prosecco. We then went to have the afternoon tea and cocktails, when booking be careful as we thought we’d booked the potion experience due to how much it cost, when in fact all we got was a cocktail each that was like drinking pipe cleaner, it was awful. We were then advised the cream tea that we’d booked wasn’t part of the package we’d booked even though it was requested in our booking and was going to cost us an additional £60!! For £60 the portion/size was ridiculously tiny, there was nothing in the first course we liked, the scones in the 2nd course were small but lovely, the 3rd course we left most of this too. Thankfully the staff were incredibly nice and gave us an additional scone each and discounted it by £15 due to how much we couldn’t eat. I can’t understand how this can be priced at £60? Throughout our afternoon tea the same piece of music played on a loop which just became irritating. We left our cream tea, still hungry so thought we’d use our wizard coins and buy something to eat, we got some home made biscuits and some popcorn, sadly only to discover once we’d got to our room was stale! In the morning we had our breakfast, this was also incredibly disappointing, the overnight oats were tasteless and just milk flavour. The ‘full English breakfast’ which consists of 1 sausage, 1 ration of bacon which was so over cooked it snapped when you tried to cut it, 2 eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, 1 hash brown and a thimble of beans, no toast or bread which you’d normally expect with a full English breakfast. On checking out we were asked if we enjoyed our stay, we were polite but honest as we’d driven over 4 hours to have a night to ourselves, and have some couple time, with the end price being £344, in all honesty the experience wasn’t worth this and we came away extremely disappointed and we were met with a polite ‘I’m sorry...