Detailed Review
A superb central London setting opposite Buckingham Palace, moments from Victoria Station and a short walk to St James's Park, Big Ben, the London Eye and The Palace of Westminster. The Rubens at The Palace offers both business and leisure guests an unrivalled range of facilities within easy reach of London's Financial District to top West End theatres.
Providing guests with outstanding personal service and exceptional comfort, the RAC and AA rated Four Star Deluxe Rubens at the Palace provides a traditionally furnished English hotel with a deserved reputation for superior comfort and service.
Within the deluxe suites and luxurious guest rooms the Rubens has an acclaimed Royal Wing - eight sumptuously furnished, hi-tech rooms with stunning marble bathrooms. The Palace Lounge and Bar coupled with the Old Masters Restaurant offer guests a fabulous dining and meeting location opposite the Palace Mews. The two rosette-awarded, intimate Library Restaurant offers fine dining in most Royal surrounds to leisure and business clients alike.
Choose from a wide range of accommodation including newly refurbished king bedded rooms, a magnificently decorated Royal Wing and spacious suites. Whilst some rooms offer stunning glimpses into Buckingham Palace and its gardens, all are beautifully furnished and offer air conditioning, bureau desks and twice daily maid service.
Independent Reviews
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"A stalwart and 'very British' hotel, close to Buckingham Palace"
The Rubens at the Palace
By Angela Moore
The Rubens is in the rather arid London hinterland between Victoria station and Buckingham Palace. Other than the African-themed restaurant next door, there’s not a lot around you. That said, the hotel stands directly across the road from the Royal Mews, where all the Queen’s horses are kept. You can bag a window seat in the lounge and watch the Royal carriages trotting in and out.
The Rubens continues this very British theme throughout, from the top-hatted doorman to the busily plush public rooms: sink into a chair in the cushy clutter of the Cavalry Bar or dine in the downstairs Library restaurant.
Top choice for accommodation at the Rubens is the Royal Wing. Each room is inspired by a different English monarch and comes complete with a specially commissioned portrait of the king or queen in question. The Prince Regent looks out on an ornate chamber, the walls covered in pale gold striped fabric and windows shaded by heavy tapestry drapes; Victoria gazes sternly upon a velvet-draped bed and a ceiling hand-painted with roses. These are the most recently refurbished rooms at the Rubens, so décor is sprucer and fresher than elsewhere in the hotel. All have views over the Royal Mews.
Suites comprise a decent-sized room (actually, it’s the same size as a standard double room), a sitting room, and two bathrooms. They also have a few small touches of luxury that other rooms do not, such as Penhaligon’s toiletries in the bathrooms. However, these rooms aren’t as original, as freshly decorated or as much fun as the Royal rooms.
Amenities in all classes of room are fairly similar - well-stocked bars; internet access through a very hi-tech integrated TV system which also lets you download movies; snack baskets; slippers and robes; a desk and swivel chair; books and magazines. In the Royal rooms and the suites, the technology extends to a TV in the bathroom (be careful if you’re simultaneously shaving and checking the Dow.)
The hotel does have some alarming eccentricities. There is an occasional volubly creaky floorboard, an in-your-face heating unit or the smell of smoke (though the hotel will be non-smoking, bar one floor, from 2006). That these serve simply to add to the hotel’s character is credit to the Rubens and, especially, credit to its staff. Service is fine, friendly and concerned – look lost for even a minute and someone will materialise at your elbow.
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