 The room we were initially given no doubt because we booked through Booking com was advertised as garden or street view but we were presented with the dreaded view of a wall After some negotiations including a suggestion that we needed to pay more resulted in a garden view and a larger room It may be better to book directly since using the travel sites seems to always result in being assigned the least desirable rooms 
 If you want to be near Victoria Station Buckingham Palace etc this is the place for you Early check wasn t possible but we were able to use the health club to shower etc 