 It is not the fault of the staff hiw complicated the telephone situation is in London It is forever changing and the telephone companies have no live people to talk to or ask advice from The staff did their best to sort out outdated Homephonenumbers and mobiles The prefixes are all different phoning to London from abroad compared to phoning inside London Also the staff of the hotel cannot be responsible for lack of public benches I prefer to walk 5 to 10 km at a time rather than tubing or bussing with my oystercard Walking is the thing to do in this gorgeous architecture and gardening London is My favorite town for 50 years And I have known them all for a long time 
 The plants were abundant and well cared for plantwalls and potplants e g palms and zamioculcas plants Attractive dried flower decorations were to be seen in the foyer and public areas This is important for me as I originally picked the red carnation hotels because they won the award for the best flower decorated hotels 20 years ago They then had beautiful big bouquets everywhere The present situation with potplants everywhere is very pleasant Also the cook makes attractive food plates and tasty and good value The looks interior and food in short have improved vastly since I stayed here the last time May 2014 