London Crowne Plaza Hotels 

Crowne Plaza, London

Crowne Plaza London offers a selection of solid mid-range hotels aimed primarily at the frequent business traveller. There are 24-hour business centres on site, in-house pools, comfortable rooms, and wi-fi (though high-speed internet access may incur a fee). The rapidly-growing Crowne Plaza brand is owned by the Intercontinental Group, which also looks after the Holiday Inn chain.

The top Crowne Plaza Hotel London is in the City, beside Blackfriars Bridge and in the shadow of St Paul's Cathedral. Smart rooms are given extra cudos by having Giorgio Locatelli's Michelin-starred Refettorio restaurant on site. With a City Thameslink rail station across the road, it also has direct links to both Gatwick and Luton airports, as well as Kings Cross St Pancras.

Also serving the City, but with more affordable rates, Crowne Plaza Hotel Shoreditch is a short walk from Liverpool Street Station. It's located on a busy main road but offers limited guest parking. This part of town is synonymous with cool, with hip bars in the old warehouse streets of Hoxton and hip boutiques on Brick Lane, should you prefer not to spend your whole trip working.

Further out east, Crowne Plaza Docklands has a uniquely atmospheric location in London's historic Royal Docks, where you'll find big open skies, old industrial landmarks and vast bodies of water that are on a different scale to the rest of London. Crowne Plaza Docklands is also right on the quayside next to the ExCel exhibition centre, a few stops from City Airport, and on a direct DLR link into Bank.

West of Central London, Crowne Plaza Kensington is set among the elegant terraces of Kensington, within easy reach of the big musuems and Earl's Court Exhibition Centre, and just half a mile from Hyde Park.

To book a Crowne Plaza Hotel contact at jenny@LondonTown.com or call 020 7437 4370