Review Surtees Hotel, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne

There’s the Surtees sign on Dean Street, above the green [inaudible 00:00:17]. But to get to it, on foot, don’t go down there. Go on the archway here and turn right.

Welcome to room four of the Surtees Hotel in Central Newcastle upon Tyne, Northern England. I’ve just arrived. Had a fairly traumatic time finding it with my luggage. I ended up going the … lallying up lots of steps with the suitcase when I didn’t need to. Not every well-explained information wise on getting here but I managed it in the end.

I’ve checked into my room. The receptionist was very friendly and I’ve paid 45 pounds per night with booking.com for this room, no breakfast included. It’s 7.50 if I want to have it.

So what do we get? Well first of all, we get this massive bed. Three pillows wide. That’s pretty good. I’m fairly impressed with the size of the bed and the room deco? Well, it’s green. I’m not going to say. They’re going for boutique-style. They’re not quite there yet. There you go. A little bedside light on. It’s a pretty old building. In fact, it’s a very old building and it’s a bit … to be honest, it’s a bit worn around the edges and a bit grubby in places and to try and polish this into a boutique-style hotel is something of a challenge. They’re halfway there but they’re certainly, by no means, finished. The lift itself is archaic. I’ll show you in a little while. I don’t like it at all. I know it’s an original feature but I really don’t like it. I’m glad I’m on the first floor because I probably won’t use it again after I filmed it next.

So the rooms are very high. You can see we got this very green theme going on. I feel like I’m inside a pea. I asked for a room on a high floor with a nice view and I got a room on the first floor with a carpark view. Nice.

So what else do we get in the room? Well, we got a flat screen TV, just here. Tall mirror here. Cloaked sockets down there. More cloaked sockets near the door so that’s four in the main room. Another one down there. Five in the main room. So in fact, seven in the main room. So that’s plenty of plug sockets for people with things to charge like phones, et cetera.

Other than the TV, the other features include the full-length mirror, the little radiator which for it size is surprisingly long. The room is extremely warm and it’s very cold outside. You need to use your … a card to get the electric working. It’s just for the electric. It’s a separate key, obviously, to get in the room.

There’s a desk with kettle and tea and coffee making bits and pieces there. There’s also information about Newcastle and the hotel itself just there. And then we have the bathroom which is a small room, just to point out, a very small room but definitely the best feature is that massive bed.

So the bathroom, again, they’ve gone for the ultra modern boutique style so we’ve got the very nice sink and a brown theme going on here. Shaving plugs. Toiletries, freebies just there. Here’s your little toilet. Mirror. Hello. Nice big shower head. I like that. That’s a good feature which I’m hoping gives me a nice rainforest type shower and the bath underneath. No non-slip mat so that’s an issue. And … oh, towels. I was going to say no towels but there they are. Plenty of towels actually on the bed.

So I’m impressed with the bed. I’m impressed with some of the design and décor features such as the bed head at the end there and the curtains are nice on the curtain pull. But as for the rest of the building, I’m going to reserve judgment for the time being and sort of see if it grows on me over the next 24 hours.

And just here, we have the wardrobe which isn’t a wardrobe. It’s a just place to put luggage which I have done. So I’m not quite sure what this diagram’s mean to represent. Perhaps it’s the fire escape route. I’m in four. I need to go out and turn left apparently. I’m pretty sure that isn’t compliant with health and safety laws but I think I get it.

All right. I’ll show you around some of the other parts of the hotel.

Okay, I’m just in the bathroom and I’d like to point out a little feature I didn’t point out earlier. And that’s the back of the bathroom door which somebody’s nicely kicked in it looks. So not very good. Does make you have a bit of confidence issues in your room when leaving stuff in your room when you’ve got people in there doing stuff like that.

Let’s get you around the corridors. A bit of a maze. And apparently during nighttime, this door locks to stop people getting out of the lift and to the rooms and there’s a code that I don’t see how or where. Oh, there it is. There’s a code there and a keypad, okay.

So this is the lift. You can see they refabbed the outside. It’s a part of the cage. So you’re going to press the call button. And then you can see what happens here. So you’ve got to open that one and that one and this one out. It might like fun because it’s an original feature, et cetera. When you’ve got suitcases and stuff, it was a pain in the backside to be on this. Now nothing’s happening. The lift was manufactured in 1923. It is preserved with national heritage. And if you don’t close both doors, other people can’t use it. So I’m not sure what’s going wrong here. Let’s try again. Here we go. Gee. All right.

So it sounds busy enough down here.

So back to character, just not for practical.

So that’s my hotel outside at night. And my room is the one to the left of the peaked arch at the bottom.