When the original Queens Hotel in Leeds opened in 1863, it was one of many great railway hotels of the time built to cater to increasing numbers of travellers.

The hotel was closed in 1935, rebuilt and re-opened in 1937, and was one of the first hotels to be purpose-built with en-suite bathrooms, central heating and rather primitive air conditioning instead of the in-room coal fires of the old hotel.

Today, The Queens remains one of Leeds's iconic features, and the hotel is as popular now as it was back in the late 19th century.

Extensive refurbishments have been carried out over the last few years, with an estimated £10 million spent on the work - considerably more than the reported average construction cost of £2,058 per bedroom back in 1936!

Many of the original features have been retained, including the bright red and brass lift doors, the staircases with their brass hand rails, and from the look of it, the revolving entrance door. 

Everything else has been thoroughly modernised, albeit as a 21st century incarnation based on a 1920s art deco theme.

On the top floor is the hotel's only penthouse suite - the Lord Mayor's Suite.  Former guests include Prince Edward, actress Joan Collins and the Blairs.

With spectacular views over City Square, the suite has its own sitting and dining rooms, two bedrooms - the smaller of which can be used for children or a bodyguard, and a private balcony for BBQs and parties.

The hotel now has 217 bedrooms, following conversion of the 8th floor former staff quarters into additional accommodation.  

All the rooms vary in size, but follow the art-deco theme throughout, and are decorated in shades of red, green or blue.

Although I like the overall theme of the hotel, I'm not too sure about the choice of colour scheme in some of the rooms.

Ours was a deluxe twin that turned out to be absolutely huge - bigger, in fact, than the bedroom of the penthouse suite - but it had a distinctly masculine feel to it and we both agreed we preferred the more cheerful, uplifting red rooms to our rather dull green one.

The room was well furnished, with two comfy chairs and a small table near the window, from where we could see, but thankfully not hear, the activity of the railway station.

The extremely comfortable beds were clad in sheet, blanket and greeny-gold bedspread, and set against a black faux ostrich-skin panel with a heavy wood surround containing over-bed spotlights which were perfect for reading.

All rooms are air-conditioned, and contain a good sized work desk, flat-screen TV with movies on demand, beverage tray and a lap-top sized safe.  There's also a fully stocked minibar hidden behind a studded leather-clad door at the side of the desk.

Bathrooms are spotless and totally refurbished, but some may find them a little on the small side as they retain the dimensions of the original en-suites installed back in the 30s.

There's both bath and in-bath shower with temperature regulator, a heated towel rail (ours didn't seem to be working), and a large square hand basin with a good selection of lovely Neutrogena toiletries sitting next to it.

Excellently lit, the bathroom had a large full-wall mirror, and an additional magnifying mirror - great for doing make-up.

While the room was without doubt extremely comfortable and well decorated, I was surprised to find it lacked some of the little touches I would expect to find included as standard in a four-star deluxe room - such as bathrobes or a complimentary bottle of mineral water. **

Dinner (and breakfast) is served in the basement 'Queens Grill' room, which was refurbished in February 2007 from a rather garish orange café-style into a very stylish looking restaurant.

We didn't dine at the hotel, but did peruse the menu which was offering starters including pressed terrine of ham hock with homemade piccalilli, Bury black pudding with fried potatoes, egg and homemade baked beans, and Queens' own chicken liver pate with onion jam.

Mains included Cumberland sausage with creamy mashed potato and rich onion gravy, Poached organic salmon with wilted baby spinach, fresh asparagus and hollandaise sauce, and for vegetarians, a new potato tortilla with pan-fried courgettes, roasted vine cherry tomatoes with basil and garlic.  Prices weren't excessive, with starters from £4.50 and mains from £10.50.

All the public areas of the hotel are gorgeous, and we loved the comfortable Queens Bar with its paintings, pillars and purple lighting above the chandeliers hanging from the high ceiling.

The bar staff were all extremely friendly and helpful, and the bar stays open until around 2am.

We called in just after midnight and were pleased to find they didn't bat an eyelid when we requested a jug of milk to take up to our room for a pre-bed cuppa.

A few late-night revellers could be heard returning to the hotel in the small hours, but thanks to the extremely good quality doors on all the rooms, there was no real noise and we slept like logs until we were woken by housekeeping knocking, then barging in to check the room at ten to nine.

At breakfast, we overheard several other guests discussing receiving similar impromptu wake-up calls.   What a pity the hotel hasn't yet devised a better way of determining whether guests have checked out.

What we like: We love the comfortable beds, the very handy location adjacent to the train station, and the excellent Queens Bar, which, I know for a fact, serves an absolutely delicious traditional afternoon tea.

What we didn't like:  Our unwelcome wake-up.

Would we go back:  Yes.  Overall, the hotel is excellent, comfortable and is just so handy for everything Leeds has to offer.

Essentials:

The Queens Hotel, City Square, Leeds, LS1 1PJ
Telephone: 0113 2431323

NOTE:  From 1st July 2007, The Queens will be completely non-smoking, and although the hotel has 24-hour access, there's really nowhere for guests to go for a ciggie except City Square itself or the pavement outside the hotel.

Published 27/05/2007

Hotel's Feedback:

Since writing our review, The Queens has contacted us to advise that from 11th June 2007, bathrobes and mineral water will be available as standard in all executive rooms.  

They also advised that they customarily switch off the heated towel rails during the summer as otherwise, bathrooms get too hot.  Fair enough.  Apparently there's a switch which we should have flicked to turn it on.   Doh!