There are hundreds of London Hotels where you can sleep in a beautiful room, have breakfast and leave the next morning knowing absolutely nothing about the area you stayed in.
Hotel Indigo London Clerkenwell is not one of them.
The first thing I noticed when I walked inside wasn’t my room. It was the interiors.
Colour. Cameras. Clocks. Unexpected objects. Different styles everywhere I looked.
Nothing seemed to match in the conventional hotel-design sense, yet somehow everything made sense.
And then the team started explaining it to me.
That was when I realised something: nothing you’re looking at here is random.
Every corner tells you something about Clerkenwell.
I went in expecting a beautiful hotel in central London. I left knowing more about this part of the city than I had before I arrived — and genuinely not wanting to leave.
If you’re comparing London Hotels and want somewhere with personality, excellent hospitality and an experience beyond simply having a nice room, this is one to know about.
Hotel Indigo London Clerkenwell for your London Hotels
Location: 2 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1M 5PQ
Area: Clerkenwell, Central London
Nearest stations: Farringdon and Barbican
Best for: Couples, solo travellers, London staycations, design lovers and travellers who want to experience a more local side of London
Food & drink: Wilderness Kitchen, Sabini Bar and Hat & Feathers pub
Good to know: Pet-friendly, Wi-Fi, air conditioning, room service and in-room coffee facilities
My favourite things: The interiors, the bed, the enormous shower, Sabini Bar, the Sunday experience and, above everything, the team
The hotel is on Clerkenwell Road, around a five-minute walk from Farringdon Station, while Barbican station is also nearby. St Paul’s Cathedral is around a 15-minute walk away, making this a particularly useful location if you’re searching for hotels in London central but don’t necessarily want to stay in one of the city’s most tourist-heavy areas.
A London hotel where the interiors actually mean something
This is what made Hotel Indigo Clerkenwell London Hotels different for me.
The hotel is beautiful, yes.
But being beautiful isn’t particularly difficult for a hotel these days.
Having something to say is different.
Clerkenwell has a long creative history connected to crafts including clockmaking, goldsmithing and architecture, and those trades have been incorporated into the hotel’s design.
Even the rooms are themed around Clerkenwell’s past.
Look closely as you walk through the hotel and the little details start making sense. The clocks outside the rooms, for example, are set to correspond with the room numbers.
There is a Kodak camera feature wall referencing Clerkenwell’s connection with photography. Elsewhere, furniture, objects, textures and artwork continue pulling the neighbourhood inside the hotel.
One of my favourite details was actually above my head.
There are plants suspended from part of the ceiling, which the hotel team explained to me as a reference to the historic waterway that once ran through Clerkenwell towards Holborn.
I probably would have walked underneath them, thought they looked beautiful and continued with my day.
Once somebody tells you the story, you look again.
And that’s essentially how I experienced the entire hotel.
It kept making me look again.
Then I found an Italian gangster in this London Hotels.
Obviously.
I’m Italian. I’ve lived in London for years. Somehow, during a luxury hotel stay in Clerkenwell, I still managed to find the Italian gangster.
Welcome to Sabini Bar.
The bar is named after Charles Sabini, a notorious gangster associated with Clerkenwell during the 1920s and 1930s.
This makes considerably more sense once you discover another piece of local history: Clerkenwell was once home to London’s Little Italy.
The bar takes inspiration from Sabini’s era, with a 1920s feel and a racing-themed cocktail menu.
And this is exactly what I mean when I say the design isn’t decoration for decoration’s sake.
You can have a cocktail without knowing any of this.
But knowing it makes the room more interesting.
I tried some of the classic cocktails during my stay and also really liked the wine selection. Hotel guests can also enjoy an aperitivo-style moment, which was a lovely addition to the evening.
The entire space manages to feel sophisticated without becoming stiff.
My room at Hotel Indigo London Clerkenwell London Hotels.
I stayed in room 212, in one of the hotel’s suites.
And I need to discuss the bed.
I don’t say this lightly: it was one of the best hotel beds I have ever slept in.
Massive. Ridiculously comfortable. The kind of bed that creates an actual problem the following morning because suddenly sightseeing feels considerably less appealing.
I did not want to get out of it.
The room itself also felt genuinely spacious. That’s something I particularly appreciated because even some expensive London hotels can leave you feeling as though somebody has managed to fit a luxury interior into a very stylish box.
This didn’t.
There was room to actually live in the space.
The design continued the Clerkenwell story inside the suite, but without sacrificing comfort for the sake of a concept.
And then there was the bathroom.
I am still thinking about that shower
I may have left Hotel Indigo Clerkenwell physically.
Emotionally, part of me is still standing underneath that shower.
The bathroom was huge, bright and luxurious, with an enormous walk-in shower that I genuinely did not want to leave.
Breakfast in bed or the full buffet in this London Hotels?
I did both — or at least inspected both.
One morning started exactly how I believe hotel mornings should start: breakfast in bed.
I went savoury with Eggs Royale, alongside croissants and breakfast treats, and enjoyed it without having to abandon that enormous bed any earlier than necessary.
If you prefer going downstairs, breakfast is served at Wilderness Kitchen.
The buffet selection was extensive. There were hot and cold options, savoury dishes, pastries and sweets, fruit and plenty of juices. It didn’t feel like one of those hotel breakfasts where you circle the buffet twice trying to work out what you’re actually supposed to eat.
There was plenty of choice.
Wilderness Kitchen itself is the hotel’s all-day dining restaurant, with a Mediterranean-inspired menu that also nods to Clerkenwell’s Italian heritage.
The hospitality was what made the hotel
Beautiful interiors get people through the door.
How you’re treated determines how you remember the place.
And the team at Hotel Indigo London Clerkenwell was exceptional.
From the moment I arrived, they were warm without being performative, attentive without constantly hovering and genuinely knowledgeable about the hotel and the neighbourhood.
They didn’t simply point at something pretty and tell me it was pretty.
They knew why it was there.
They explained the stories behind the interiors, answered questions, checked that everything was right and made the whole experience feel personal.
Travelling solo also changes how I judge hospitality.
Whether I was stopping for a cocktail, walking through reception or asking about something I’d spotted in the design, there was always warmth from the team.
Between the suite, the service and the attention to detail, I felt completely looked after.
Basically, I arrived with a suitcase and left feeling like I’d been treated like a queen in this London Hotels.
One of the best parts happens outside the London hotels
This is where Hotel Indigo Clerkenwell really won me over.
It didn’t only tell me that Clerkenwell was interesting.
It encouraged me to go outside and discover why.
On Sunday I joined the Smithfield: Guts & Glory walking tour, exploring the history around Clerkenwell and Smithfield.
My guide was Katie.
And I need Katie to know that somebody who has never considered herself particularly interested in history could have listened to her all day.
She was funny, incredibly knowledgeable, kind and — most importantly — a storyteller.
Instead of listening to a list of dates while quietly wondering how long was left, I found myself wanting the next story.
A proper Sunday roast at Hat & Feathers
After walking around London learning about martyrs, gangsters, hospitals and several centuries of questionable behaviour, there was really only one appropriate ending.
Sunday roast.
Hat & Feathers forms part of Hotel Indigo London Clerkenwell, but it isn’t a newly invented faux-Victorian hotel pub.
It’s a restored Grade II-listed pub that has existed for more than 160 years.
The interior is another explosion of character.
There are colourful details everywhere, hats turned into ceiling lights and one of the most entertaining pub bathrooms I’ve seen in London, complete with doors that look like they belong to individual houses.
There is even a Dickens Corner.
I tried the Sunday roast and my favourite was the pork.
Classic, comforting and exactly what I wanted after spending the morning walking around Clerkenwell.
Is Clerkenwell a good place to stay in London?
Yes, particularly if you’ve already done the most obvious version of London — or simply don’t want it in the first place.
Clerkenwell feels central without feeling as though you’ve chosen your hotel exclusively according to the nearest tourist attraction.
I walked to the hotel from Barbican station and found the area incredibly easy to navigate on foot.
Farringdon is also nearby, while places such as the Barbican Centre and St Paul’s are within easy reach.
Restaurants, pubs, cafés and interesting streets surround you, but the neighbourhood still has its own identity.
For visitors comparing hotels in London central, that’s a major advantage.
You can access the London you’ve travelled here to see while staying somewhere that still feels like an actual neighbourhood.
And if you’re a Londoner?
I’d argue the experience becomes interesting for a completely different reason.
You may discover how much of your own city you’ve been walking past without knowing anything about it.
I certainly did.
Is Hotel Indigo London Clerkenwell good for solo travellers?
I travelled solo and would happily stay here alone again.
Location matters when I’m travelling by myself, but so does atmosphere.
I don’t particularly enjoy hotels that feel anonymous — where you enter your room, close the door and could realistically be in any city in the world.
Hotel Indigo Clerkenwell felt connected to what was happening outside.
The team also made a significant difference. Their friendliness and attentiveness meant I felt comfortable spending time alone around the hotel, at the bar and exploring the neighbourhood.
For solo travellers who like independence but still appreciate human interaction, it strikes a very good balance.
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