Review

A serious option for those with a restricted budget and/or a developed sense of humour, the Londra is a charming and eccentric survivor of the high Victorian grandeur of Pera and a contemporary of its more famous near-neighbour, the Pera Palace.

A showy, ornate façade, replete with a graceful row of caryatids, is matched for attention by the recently renovated, period interior décor of the lobby and bar where the ceiling’s elaborate plaster mouldings, enlivened by rather glaring colour choices, compete for attention with voluptuous chandeliers, loud wallpaper and, of course, caged parrots. The (few) staff, meanwhile, are more likely to be playing solitaire on computer than paying attention to anything in particular.

Those are the highpoints. The rooms, though large, are worn (though a renovation programme is progressing), the bathrooms pretty basic (dodgy showers), and the breakfasts are eminently avoidable. The whole place is slightly reminiscent of those hotels in India that attempt to maintain the style and etiquette of the days of the Raj on shoestring budgets and only hazy, second-hand recollections of what they were in the first place.