My husband and I live and work in London. We live in deepest, darkest South London and in fact I have an hour long commute to my office in West London every day.
We also have a 7 month old baby who we are reluctant to leave, but we really needed a break and his godparents kindly offered to babysit and housesit for a whole weekend.
I had heard about the Rookery before and we thought it would be perfect for a weekend as 'tourists' in London but still be close enough to get home to our baby if necessary.
I can't say enough good things about this place.
Service is good- friendly, interested but discreet staff.
As soon as you enter the foyer you know you are in for a treat- wood panelling, deep pile carpets, lovely oil paintings and flowers everywhere. I instantly relaxed.
Our room was the lovely 'Mary Lane' , rather like sleeping in a hayloft- lots of beams and panelling above our antique bed. Extremely romantic and cosy.
A note- keep the windows shut and the air conditioning on if you are warm- the Rookery is a stone's throw from the famous club 'Fabric' and at throwing out time (5am ish), that room would be noisy with the windows open.
The bathroom has Aveda toiletries (another tick in my book and we had a huge roll top bath. It was bliss. I had 4 baths in 2 days.
Order a pot of tea for two and you get lovely biscuits with it!
There is a cute little garden out the back- like a patio filled with urns of flowers. We brought some champagne with us and drank it outside before going out for dinner. There is no restaurant- breakfast is delivered to your room but we saved the £15 and went to the M&S food hall right next door which is also open till midnight every night.
Loads of choice nearby to eat. We went to Smiths of Smithfield on the Friday night for a steak. Buzzy atmosphere, full of after work suits, but average food. Saturday night we went to Vinoteca on St Johns Lane parallel to the Rookery. (the famous St John restaurant was closed for refurbishment).
Staff were extremely knowledgeable about wine and food.
The food was fantastic- best meal either of us have had in a long time and we are not your average punters as my husband runs a restaurant and bar and is passionate about good food and usually terribly critical! Attention to detail was very good. They make their own biscuits to go with the cheese platter and they were absolutely sublime!
Definitely reccommend Vinoteca.
Ididn't want to leave the Rookery- it was a wonderful weekend and a fantastic hotel. I have a very demanding job and am not allowed to take a holiday during the summer months so this was a perfect break for me to recharge my batteries.
We will be back and I really recommend it for a luxurious treat in the heart of the city.

5* boutique hotel with a lack of showers (not great when you have somewhere to be and the bath takes ages to run), rubbish ironing board and iron which had seen better days, no breakfast service and the NOISE from the street below is hideous late at night. Shame because the hotel itself is beautiful and the staff are lovely. It wasn't upwards of £200 pn, it wouldn't be so galling...

I should come clean immediately. I wasn't feeling terribly well when we stayed at the Rookery, and was a whisker away from cancelling the stay. But hang on, I thought to myself, what better place to recouperate for a couple of days, than in one of London's finest boutique hotels?

The location of the Rookery, in my opinion, can't be beat. It's a little off of the beaten track, which is a good thing, but a 15 minute walk or 5 minute cab ride, to the heart of Theatreland and the West End. Farringon/Clerkenwell is an area steeped in history and provides great access to the City, Shoreditch, Islington and the Tate etc. So for tourists and business people, it's a great location.

The building itself and the rooms are also lovely, and they've done a marvellous job of playing up the area's history and relating it to the hotel. The rooms are also well appointed with lovely beds, comfortable furniture, TV etc. which really make you feel at home.

The service was a bit lackluster on our arrival, with the staff seemingly perturbed by our arrival. There is also very limited service within the hotel, with a small room service menu, and precious few other facilities.

What really lets this place down though is the noise. Previous reviewers have noted it, and we may have been just really unlucky, but having spent a lot of time in this area, I very much doubt it. Clerkenwell is a very lively place, and the Rookery sits on a shorcut for clubbers travelling to one of London's finest clubs Fabric. This means that I'd consider it quite likely that you'd be woken up by drunken revellers at 3am making their way to or from the club. Particularly unfortunate were we, that the revellers decided to revel for a while almost directly outside our window, which had we been on the ground floor, would have been seriously disconcerting. The noise within the hotel was pretty bad too. I appreciate that this is a four hundred year old building, but I could hear people walking above, and toliets flushing next door.

All of which would be ok, but this hotel is normally around the £200 a night mark, which I'd expect a bit more for. Within walking distance is the Zetter, Malmaison and recently opened Coach & Horses for a more "authentic" stay (its owned by Malmaison too!) and I think in future, I'd plump for one of them instead. Yes, this is a really interesting hotel with lovely rooms, but if you're planning to stay there on a Friday or Saturday night make sure to take your ear plugs.

Two important things first up:
1. I've traveled plenty for business and for pleasure and stayed in all sorts accommodation.
2. Of all the places I've stayed - good and bad - I've never yet got round to writing a review (so the fact that I'm writing one now is pretty significant).

My wife and I booked into the Rookery for weekend break (Friday- Sunday) at the end of March 2008. We didn't have any specific plans for the weekend and really just wanted a relaxing few days away in one of London's quieter districts, but within easy reach of good bars, restaurants, markets, shops, galleries, etc. We booked the trip the day before and got a good last minute rate on a standard double room which was a fair bit cheaper than the hotel's rack rate.

We've stayed in more modern hotels, and hotels with a wider range of facilities but we've never stayed anywhere with the feel of the Rookery. With its tasteful, comfortable, not-trying-too-hard decor and its professional, helpful staff we both agreed that staying at the Rookery felt more like spending a weekend at a friends place than checking into a hotel.

Linen, towels and toiletries were all very high quality. Honesty bar and lounge on the ground floor was well stocked and very comfortable with its rugs, sofas and open fire. A small minus point for the lack of tea and coffee making facilities in the room.

The Clerkenwell area of London is very interesting - particularly if you know London well already and are a bit bored with the hotels and attractions of the West End. The narrow streets and alleyways are great for exploring and the markets on the fringes of the City (a little further to the East, around Liverpool St.) make for super Sunday browsing and shopping. Restaurants local to the Rookery were numerous and looked good - try the excellent Smith's of Smithfield on Charterhouse St. for breakfast.

A few reviewers have mentioned the nightime noise levels. The standard double we stayed in (the rooms all have names rather than numbers!) had secondary glazing which cut the street noise down to an acceptable level. The one way system means that street directly outside the hotel is quiet quiet (not too many passing cars etc) and we found that most of the noise came from people queuing to get into a club in the next street. I suppose there might be some more noise when the club closes but I can't say that either my wife or I heard anything during our stay. If you think this might be a problem for you then just bring some ear plugs. It's probably also worth noting that we were there over a weekend; during the week there may well be more noise from the Smithfield meat market which is pretty close.

So, all in all, a really special experience at a reasonable price, and one which we hope to repeat very soon.