Premier Inn London Southwark Borough Market ★☆☆

Basic, bland motel with a great location—and attached to one of London's most historic pubs where Shakespeare once drank

This place is a bland, modern, cookie-cutter chain joint—think Motel 6, but one that’s particularly clean, comfortable enough (thin walls, though), and modern—but it’s location is killer: on the revived Southwark river walk (that’s the south side of the River Thames), bang between the Tate Modern and the daily covered food market, a short stroll from both the Golden Hind (which is far tinier than you’d ever have imagined) and the Globe Theatre (Shakespeare as it was meant to be heard for £5).

But it’s true claim to shining fame in my book is that it is attached to the venerable Anchor Bankside Pub, where Shakespeare himself used to get sloshed, Dryden drank, and Samuel Pepys scribbled in his diary about the Great Fire of 1666 as he watched it consume the City of London across the river. Best bit: you get to take breakfast (a full English fry-up) in a top room of the pub, at a table overlooking the Thames River to the dome of St. Paul’s.

This is actually just one of a chain of 450 moderately-priced hotels across the UK (a marriage of two chains that used to be called Travel Inn and Premiere Lodges), and the prices at all are usually decent for expensive spot like Great Britain—officially starting at £158, though I’ve know sales to bring it even lower, in the £49–£79 range.

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