Show Gallery (4 images) Add to Favourites

The Old Ship

A proper pub with comfortable en-suite rooms in the heart of Hackney.

There are plenty of cheap chain hotels scattered around the inner neighbourhoods of London, but to be honest we'd rather stay somewhere with a bit more character, like this proper pub, just off Hackney's cool main drag, which is not only a very convivial place to drink and eat but has a handful of comfy and well-equipped upstairs rooms as well.

First the pub, which is first and foremost a proper boozer, but one which has kept up with the best 21st-century trends, with a good range of craft beers and ales and really good pub food, including a good chicken and burgers and a decent Full English in the morning (though this costs extra). There are ten crisply furnished rooms, all with decent wifi, flatscreen Freeview TVs, hairdryers, tea- and coffee-making facilities and up-to-date en-suite bathrooms with toiletries. Downstairs they serve food day and night, offer a laundry service and are open 24 hours so it's just like a proper hotel. Not only that, you're a two-minute walk from Hackney Central station, and close to loads of bus routes and other stations that offer a quick way into central London, not to mention the cooler parts of east London. All in all a very comfy base for seeing the very best of the capital.