COLM KEENAstays at La Gaffe, in Hampstead, London
AS A VERY infrequent visitor to London I was a bit stunned when I went to book a hotel over the internet. We had decided that we would go to France on our holidays, but go first to London for a night or two, before taking the Eurostar to Paris. But when I went searching I found that it can be difficult to find a family room in the English capital, and prices are very high.
Luckily, I stumbled upon the website of a family run hotel in Hampstead. When I called, the phone was answered by a member of the family, Lorenzo, and he agreed to squish us all into their family room, for £125 (€152) a night with breakfast. I felt good about the hotel right away, having by then had a number of unsatisfactory dealings with all sorts of centralised booking and automatic reservation systems.
I had never been to Hampstead before and was pleasantly surprised. It has something of a village atmosphere in the way, say, Ranelagh in Dublin has, thought it is more airy and quiet. It also had that atmosphere you pick up when everyone that lives in an area is very pleased with the fact.
The hotel itself is a small one, with fewer than 20 rooms. The business started out as a restaurant in 1962, which takes up much of the ground floor to the front. Our room was on the first floor in an annex to the back, looking out on a quiet residential square. There was a four-poster double bed, and a pullout bed underneath it in the main room, as well as a flat screen TV on the wall. There was a shower/bathroom, reasonably large, and a third room with a single bed. Our teenage daughter got that. It was a squish but not an unpleasant one.
Breakfast was buffet style, served in the restaurant which had trompe d'oeilstone walls, complete with frescoes. It was a modest buffet, no doubt reflecting the number of rooms in the hotel. Cereal, bread, hard boiled eggs, ham, cheese, juice, tea, coffee, hot chocolate.
We ate in the restaurant both nights we were there. The menu is that of your typical Italian restaurant, reflecting the nationality of La Gaffe’s founder, Bernardo Stella – pasta, meat dishes, fish, pleasant Italian wines. It was particularly nice to be able to slip upstairs and go straight to bed afterwards.
Hampstead is a little outside central London but it is served by the Northern Line. Hampstead station is, just like so much of Hampstead itself, preserved in close to its original form and is very pretty. Taking the Tube can be an unpleasant experience but the fact that you could retire at the end of your day to quiet Hampstead and dinner in Le Gaffe more than made up for staying in the underground for an extra few stops.
The heath for which Hampstead is famous is about five minutes walk from the hotel and on the day we visited it was busy with walkers, cyclists and joggers. According to the map, there are even bathing places in the heath, though we turned back before we got that far.
We retired to a friendly pub, the Duke of Hamilton, which is around the corner from La Gaffe. The pub is more than 200 years old and the focus of
a preservation campaign. There are benches outside where you can be accosted by the amazing friendliness of Londoners.
Bernardo Stella is now retired and the next generation is running the shop, but he was in the lobby on the morning we were checking out. We got talking and it turned out he is very interested in writing and Irish literature.
His first poem, he told me, was published a few decades ago in the Antrim Observerand addressed the conflict in Northern Ireland. Afterwards, he said, he got a call from the Rev Ian Paisley. It was the sort of conversation you almost expect to have in Hampstead and indeed in La Gaffe.
WhereLa Gaffe, 107-111 Heath Street, Hampstead, London NW3 6SS, 00-44-20-7435-8965, lagaffe.co.uk.
WhatSmall family-run hotel in Hampstead, cited in the New York Times as one of the top 100 hotels for under $150 a night.
RoomsSingle, double, twin and family rooms, all en-suite.
Best ratesSingle rooms cost £75 (€90), family room £125 (€152).
Restaurants and barsItalian restaurant and wine bar on premises.
Child friendlinessThe hotel is welcoming to children.
AccessibilityThe hotel is in an old building and our room was up a flight of narrow stairs.
Amenities.Hampstead Heath nearby.
Go Overnights are reviewed anonymously and paid for by
The Irish Times