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London Crystal Palace

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rjd1983 started this discussion 13 years 5 months ago

I've seen a pub in Crystal Palace London for rent, with accommodation. And I was just wondering what people though of Crystal Palace as a location?

The downside is that it's not the tourist area of London, and you would have to train to London Victoria or London Bridge to get on the Tube network. Trains are pretty frequent to Victoria, average wait is 10 minutes (not much longer than the Tube), cost is £3.40 each way (US$5/€3.60) and journey time is 30 minutes, max.

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clivejeffries

13 years

Hi there,

Will first say that have not been to Crystal Palace (am mainly based in Wimbledon/Putney/Fulham area) but I would agree that transportation would be your main issue, esp. with the cost of London transport, though to be fair they can spend £1.30 for the number 3 bus to central London if they have the time, and backpackers usually do. A quick look at hostelworld only shows about 2 hostels south of the river at all, I think it would be a struggle to attract many backpackers so far from the action unless you could seriously undercut everyone else. However, SW London is full of Ozzy and SAs either commuting to the centre or working locally in bars, etc, many of whom are sharing a small room with 3 others as its so expensive here. Im sure if they could stay longer term in a cheap, clean dorm room or even better their own room, they would jump at the chance. Is there much local competition? The idea of the pub is interesting, are you planning to run it as well? Are there any planning/zoning issues? I used to manage a pub in Fulham would have loved to be able to rent out the rooms above. Interested to know your plans,

Clive

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rjd1983

13 years

There are actually 3 south of the river. 2 are in Greenwich (Journey's and St Christopher's) and the other one is slightly north east of Crystal Palace, right next to the NR station. The one next to the NR station doesn't have good reviews on HW, but people still rate the hostel location as 70%, and even comment on how easy it is to get to London. The Crystal Palace also has a London Overground connection as well, which is probably cheaper than NR.

The competition in Crystal Palace consists of quite a few Inns (pub/hotel combo) especially around the hostel, but from what I've heard the pubs have all undergone a makeover in the last few years, and are upmarket. The current owners say they make about £1500-£2000 a night in the pub when it's a game day at Crystal Palace (for those of you that don't follow English Football, Crystal Palace are also a football team in the English Premier League). But even when it's game night, they don't try to sell their accommodation because they don't really care about that side of the business.

I would definitely run the bar as well as the hostel, as there would be great synergies between the two, and backpackers like to drink in the hostel bar. I would offer them a small, but nice discount to drink in the bar. One of the great things about the building is that it's also licensed to sell and serve food, although I would be unlikely to do much in the food category until the business was more established.

The big downside for me about the building is that I spoke to Croydon Council about converting into a hostel, and they said that I would have to submit a full-planning application to them to use it as a hostel. That takes £325 and up to 8 weeks for it to happen. But I find it strange that I would have to seek full permission to make it into a hostel, when it's already operating as a hotel (with permission from the Council). It has "A Category" but apparently not "C Category", which is necessary to run a hostel or hotel.

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