South Kensington does not lack hotels, but few sit closer to the museums than this one. The Radisson Blu Edwardian Vanderbilt strings together a row of Victorian townhouses at 68-86 Cromwell Road, five minutes on foot from the Natural History Museum, with the V&A and the Science Museum barely further. South Kensington station is around the corner, which means the Piccadilly line runs you in from Heathrow without a change, and Hyde Park is a ten-minute walk up Exhibition Road.
Behind the stucco fronts are 215 rooms that vary as townhouse conversions always do. Lower floors get taller ceilings and the odd surviving cornice; upper floors are snugger and quieter. The style is contemporary chain polish, dark headboards, decent beds and compact, well-finished bathrooms, and everything works, though light sleepers should ask for a room away from Cromwell Road, which carries traffic at all hours.
We would not book the Vanderbilt for the hotel itself. The restaurant and bar do a competent job for the first night, breakfast is a busy but well-drilled buffet, and the fitness room is small. What you are paying for is the postcode at a price Knightsbridge cannot match, and on that measure it earns its keep. One practical note: this corner of the old Edwardian portfolio has changed hands in recent years, so the name on the awning may evolve; the townhouses and the location are not going anywhere.
