Background
My home town of Sutton in south London is in the midst of significant change, with both the bottom and top of the high street seeing large scale residential and commercial developments.
For years the only major hotel in town was the Holiday Inn London Sutton – over the years I have been there for everything from school graduation parties to NCT classes, and while a little on the tired side it has the advantage of having a swimming pool.
This all changed in 2019 when Premier Inn opened a property close to the town’s St Nicholas and Times Square shopping centres, followed by the dual-branded Ibis London Sutton Point and Aparthotel Adagio London Sutton Point in 2021.
Where is it?
Part of the new Sutton Plaza development at the top of the town centre, a couple of minutes’ walk from Sutton station, which has direct links to London Bridge, London Victoria, Epsom and Wimbledon via the Southern and Thameslink lines.
What’s it like?
The new-build property is part of a wider development which also features a couple of commercial units including Spaces Sutton Point, which offers workspace, offices and meeting rooms for hire.
This review focuses on the Ibis hotel, but all of the public spaces including reception and the restaurant are shared with the extended stay Adagio property, the studios and apartments for which occupy the upper floors of the building. At some point I will return to review the Adagio offering as well.
On entering the property there is a small lounge area, and a reception desk with staff working across both the Ibis and Adagio. When I arrived at around 1pm on a Friday afternoon in mid December the ground floor was quiet, with two members of staff on hand for check-in.
Charlie’s Corner restaurant and bar is on the first floor and can be seen from the outside via the floor-to-ceiling windows, and the Ibis rooms start above this.
Note that there is what the hotels themselves admit to as “limited parking”, charged at £8 per night using bays 12-27. I arrived by train so cannot comment on availability or how easy these are to use, but several user reviews have questioned whether this is sufficient for the size of the property – the Ibis has 99 rooms, while the Adagio has 59 apartments.
Rooms
My room was on the fifth floor of the building overlooking the front of the property, towards another new-build development which looked near to completion.
Rooms have a minimalist, almost monochrome design, with white walls, black bedside tables, black plug sockets and a black carpet under the bed. This is broken up by light wood colouring in the flooring and workdesk surface.
This black and white theme continued with black metal frames for the opening hanging space and shelving, which in my room then continued through to the headboard of the bed, and a separate black framed workdesk in the corner of the room – in other rooms the desk is incorporated into the hanging and shelving set up.
The monochrome theme also continued into the bathroom, which had a walk-in shower and large bottles of body wash and shampoo attached to the wall.
Room features included tea and coffee facilities, an armchair as well as the desk chair, a large mirror by the door, and free wifi (no code required).
One thing I noticed was the abundant use of QR codes for guests to obtain further information on various facilities – there was one on the parking, another for details about the room, a third for information on Accor’s ALL loyalty scheme, and another to access the restaurant’s menu.
According to the hotel’s website, rooms range in size from 19 to 22 sqm.
Overall I found the room to be modern and well equipped – the blackout curtains were also excellent, blocking out all light from the street.
Food and drink
The first floor Charlie’s Corner is open from 0700 for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and has a mixture of lounge, dining table and bar stool seating.
I visited for breakfast and there was a good selection of hot and cold dishes from the buffet, including English breakfast, cereals, pastries, cold meats and fruit, as well as two self-service coffee machines.
The FIFA World Cup was taking place during my stay, and during the evening a large projector screen was pulled down to allow guests to view matches while having a drink.
Meetings
None, although informal meetings could take place in Charlie’s Corner, and as mentioned above Spaces Sutton Point offers workspace, offices and meeting rooms.
Leisure
None, which I was slightly surprised about given the two hotels in the development and the fact that the Adagio is catering for longer stay guests.
Verdict
A much-needed addition to Sutton’s hotel scene, bringing modern rooms in a good location for the station. My only gripe is the lack of fitness centre across the development.
FACT BOX
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