Pickwick Hall provides accommodation for tourists, students and other people who require cheap, clean and attractive short or long-term lodging in central London.

Situated in central London, in the famous area of Bloomsbury, where writers and artists have lived for centuries (Dickens for example). Pickwick Hall is the perfect location, about three minutes walk from the British Museum and the University of London about 10 minutes from the entertainment and shopping districts of the West End, Covent Garden, Soho and China Town. but in a quiet street of Georgian town houses.

Easy and direct access from Heathrow Airport by tube (straight to Holborn Station on the Piccadilly line) or by A2 Airbus to Russell Square. Choose either 'en-suite rooms' (with their own private bathroom) or the less expensive 'standard rooms' (with showers and toilets shared with a limited number of other guests).

Whichever you choose, the rooms will be furnished and otherwise equipped to the same level of comfort. Bed linen and towels provided; washer and dryer available for your clothes; continental breakfast and kitchen available to prepare your own meals. There is a sitting room with cable television and high-speed Internet.

Our staff are on hand to answer your queries, speaking, Spanish and French, a high standard is maintained to ensure your stay with us is comfortable.

Being a small hostel you can expect personal attention and good accommodation at a reasonable price.

About the Management

Pickwick Hall is owned and managed by Patrick and Clara Hancock who have been managing Bed and Breakfast hotels in the Bloomsbury area for more than twelve years. They have always specialised in providing welcoming accommodation for students and families. Patrick is also a director of a company that provides administrative services in the UK for overseas universities that send students to this country on study programmes. Clara is an artist who paints on silk and makes sculptures in wood and stone. She is also a guide in three galleries of the British Museum.

History

The buildings that now line Bedford Place were constructed in 1802-03 on the site of Bedford House that was demolished two years earlier.

Bedford House was built and named Southampton House for Thomas Wriothesley, 4th. Earl of Southampton in the early 1660's, just before the Great Fire that destroyed much of the City of London a mile to the East in 1666. In 1734, Southampton House was bought by the Duke of Bedford - a substantial landowner in this area - and renamed Bedford House.

Even in the mid-eighteenth century, Bedford House was on the limit of London (City of Westminster) and overlooked parkland and farmland: Rocque's map of 1762 shows Bedford House and its neighbour to the West, Montague House (now the site of the British Museum) to have been bordered on their North sides by Lambs Conduit Fields and other farmland with remotely-scattered farms and country houses. However, urban development followed quickly and by 1835 the land had been built upon from Bedford Place to Euston Road (previously called New Road). Rocque's map referred to above and Cross's New Plan of 1835 are in the entrance hall of Pickwick Hall.