My street has more hotel doors than front doors. Leinster Gardens and the squares around it are lined with them, from twenty-room townhouses to the big white terraces on Bayswater Road, and a good half of the guests who come through my door are staying in one. They usually find me the same way: a search for “massage near me” from a hotel bed, at the end of a long flight or a longer week.
So here is the map, written down properly. Thirty-eight hotels around Bayswater, Queensway, Lancaster Gate and Paddington, and how long it takes to walk from each of them to the studio.
The times are worked out along real streets with OpenStreetMap’s walking router, from the hotel entrance to my end of Leinster Gardens, and rounded up. They are for an unhurried pace, not a sprint. I have no connection with any of these hotels, and none of them recommends me. This is simply what is near.
Hotels on Leinster Gardens and Queen’s Gardens
If you are staying on my street or the next one, you are closer to the massage table than to the nearest coffee.
| Hotel | Street | On foot |
|---|---|---|
| The Caesar Hotel | Queen’s Gardens | 1 min |
| Duke of Leinster Hotel | Leinster Gardens | 1 min |
| Hyde Park Boutique Hotel | Leinster Gardens | 1 min |
| The Henry Hotel | Leinster Gardens | 2 min |
| The Cleveland Hotel | Cleveland Square | 2 min |
Come down in whatever you are wearing. The shower and the towels are here.
Queensway, Inverness Terrace and Bayswater Road
The Queensway side of Bayswater is where most of the larger hotels are. The blocks between Queensborough Terrace and Inverness Terrace are long, so the walk is a little longer than the map suggests: out to Bayswater Road or round by Porchester Gardens, then along Leinster Terrace or Craven Hill.
| Hotel | Street | On foot |
|---|---|---|
| Thistle Kensington Gardens | Bayswater Road | 5 min |
| Central Park Hotel | Queensborough Terrace | 7 min |
| Hyde Park International | Inverness Terrace | 7 min |
| Phoenix Hotel | Kensington Gardens Square | 7 min |
| Berjaya Eden Park Hotel | Inverness Terrace | 8 min |
| La Suite West – Hyde Park | Inverness Terrace | 8 min |
| Six Senses London | Redan Place, The Whiteley | 8 min |
| Grand Plaza Serviced Apartments | Prince’s Square | 8 min |
| Grand Royale London Hyde Park | Inverness Terrace | 9 min |
| Hilton London Hyde Park | Bayswater Road | 9 min |
| DoubleTree by Hilton London – Hyde Park | Bayswater Road | 13 min |
From the hotels facing Kensington Gardens it is a pleasant walk east along the park railings to Leinster Terrace, then up into Leinster Gardens. There is more about this end of W2 on the Queensway page.
Lancaster Gate and the top of Hyde Park
The white stucco hotels around Lancaster Gate are the closest to the park and among the closest to me. Runners staying here tend to book deep tissue after a morning loop of the Serpentine.
| Hotel | Street | On foot |
|---|---|---|
| Lancaster Gate Hotel | Lancaster Gate | 4 min |
| Park Grand London Lancaster Gate | Craven Hill | 5 min |
| Thistle Hyde Park | Lancaster Gate | 7 min |
| Columbia Hotel | Lancaster Gate | 7 min |
| Best Western Mornington | Lancaster Gate | 7 min |
| Corus Hotel Hyde Park | Lancaster Gate | 8 min |
| Royal Lancaster London | Lancaster Terrace | 11 min |
The route is along Craven Hill or up from Bayswater Road by Leinster Terrace. More on the Lancaster Gate page.
Paddington: Craven Road, Praed Street, Sussex Gardens and the Basin
The hotels around Paddington station are where travellers off the Heathrow Express end up, and the walk to me is a straight line west along Craven Road and Craven Hill.
| Hotel | Street | On foot |
|---|---|---|
| Park Grand London Hyde Park | Westbourne Terrace | 7 min |
| The Chilworth London Paddington | Westbourne Terrace | 7 min |
| The Westbourne Hyde Park | Gloucester Terrace | 7 min |
| Royal Eagle Hotel | Craven Road | 7 min |
| Hilton London Paddington | Praed Street | 10 min |
| The Pilgrm | London Street | 10 min |
| Hotel Indigo London – Paddington | London Street | 11 min |
| Mercure London Hyde Park | Talbot Square | 12 min |
| Days Inn London Hyde Park | Sussex Gardens | 12 min |
| Norfolk Plaza Hotel | Norfolk Square | 12 min |
| Hyatt Place London Paddington | Norfolk Place | 13 min |
| Novotel London Paddington | Kingdom Street | 14 min |
| Premier Inn London Paddington Basin | Paddington Basin | 15 min |
| Point A Hotel London Paddington | Praed Street | 16 min |
| Hilton London Metropole | Edgware Road | 19 min |
From the station platforms themselves it is about thirteen minutes, because the station’s exits add a few. With luggage, or in the rain, a cab from the rank on Eastbourne Terrace takes five. From the Metropole end of Edgware Road, two stops on the Circle line to Bayswater is just as quick as walking.
Why not the hotel spa?
Some of these hotels have a spa, and if you want a pool, a sauna and a whole afternoon in a robe, it is a lovely way to spend one. If what you want is the massage itself, you are mostly paying for the building. A sixty-minute treatment in a luxury central London hotel spa is often £150 or more, sometimes with a service charge on top; I have written about what a massage really costs in London and why.
Many of the hotels on this list have no spa at all, which is the other reason guests walk over.
Here you get one private room, a proper table, warm oil, a shower, fresh linen, and one masseuse who sees four guests a day. The hour is sixty minutes on the table, not fifty, and the price is the price: £120 for an hour of Swedish massage, no service charge, no tipping.
Booking from your hotel
Message on WhatsApp with a day, a rough time and how long you would like. You will have the slot, the price and the exact address with door instructions back within minutes, often before you have finished unpacking. You do not need to tell reception anything.
Same-day slots are usually free in the daytime. Evenings after six go first, and the last sessions start at 21:00 on weekdays and 20:00 at weekends, so a day’s notice helps if you want one after dinner.
Bring the suitcase if you are coming straight from the airport. There is room for it, and nobody else will be there.
What to book
Straight off a long flight, a slow ninety-minute full body massage, and then sleep rather than sightseeing; there is a whole note on massage after a long-haul flight. After a day walking the park and the museums, deep tissue for the back and calves. After a week of meetings, when what you want is warmth rather than pressure, the slow sensual full body massage.
Whichever it is, the walk back to the hotel will be slower than the walk here. That is rather the point.