Boutique Hotel Near Me in Pimlico: Artist Residence Above a Former Pub

Artist Residence London has 10 bedrooms, spread over three floors of a Thomas Cubitt-designed Pimlico townhouse that has no lift. The hotel is at 52 Cambridge Street, London SW1V 4QQ, above The Cambridge Street, an all-day café, restaurant and bar that starts serving breakfast at 7:30 am on weekdays. Check-in is from 3 pm and check-out is by 11 am. Anyone typing boutique hotel near me around Victoria will find it about a 10-minute walk away, on a quiet residential street that once counted Laura Ashley as a resident.

The hotel puts itself around a 10-minute walk from both Victoria and Pimlico Underground stations, with Sloane Square about 15 minutes away. Victoria is the useful arrival point, because it also has mainline trains and the Gatwick Express, so you can wheel a case from the airport train to Cambridge Street without another change. One reviewer from the Arbuturian, arriving by black cab, walked past the modest hotel doorway altogether and into the adjoining bistro, so look for the café frontage.

Drivers get no on-site parking. The hotel sends guests to Q Car Park on Cumberland Street, SW1V 4LY, a three-minute walk, and the code ARTIST20 takes 20% off its pre-booked rates. You can pull up outside briefly to unload luggage before parking. For nights out the team suggests black cabs, pre-booked Addison Lee cars or Uber, and Soho is two Underground stops away when you want theatres, nightlife and late dinners.

Like many Regency terraces in this corner of south-west London, 52 Cambridge Street was designed by Thomas Cubitt, and the building began life as a pub decades ago. Artist Residence opened here in 2014 as the third house of a brand that began in Brighton in 2008, when Justin Salisbury, then 20, left a finance degree in Leeds to take over a run-down family guesthouse called the Malvern B&B.

His partner Charlie Newey, who had studied history of art in Leeds, came up with the idea of inviting local artists to decorate the Brighton rooms in exchange for little more than a takeaway. In Pimlico the couple oversaw the interiors themselves, stripping the building back and reinstating cornices and flooring that had been removed, then filling it with reclaimed timber, auction finds, Farrow & Ball greys such as Purbeck Stone and Pigeon, and limited-edition prints.

Art still does the talking. On the red-carpeted stairs the Arbuturian spotted Pure Evil's Warhol pastiches and the Connor Brothers' fictional book covers, and instead of a lobby there was a tiny desk with jars of sweets. The same reviewer found the breakfast tables busy with local parents and creative types holding business meetings, while the basement cocktail bar, set in the old pub cellar, pulled in a well-heeled post-work crowd alongside hotel guests.

The official FAQ names Small rooms, Medium rooms, The Loft, the Club Suite and the Grand Suite, and warns that sizes and layouts vary from room to room. According to the Great Small Hotels listing, the first-floor Small rooms are about 16 sq m with king-size beds and rainfall showers. Medium rooms on the second floor reach 20 sq m with super-king beds, and a Medium Twin under the third-floor eaves offers two singles instead.

The Loft is the top-floor nest, with a pitched ceiling, a walk-in shower and a 1930s French-style bath. When the Arbuturian stayed, its headboard was a reclaimed field gate, an antler chandelier by Ines Cole hung over the bed, and a Catchpole & Rye scroll-top tub looked across the Pimlico rooftops. The 36 sq m Club Suite has a velvet sofa, vintage leather club chairs and a roll-top bath, while the 43 sq m Grand Suite adds a four-poster bed and floor-to-ceiling sash windows.

Every room has a pod coffee machine loaded with locally roasted Grind coffee, fresh milk in the fridge, a minibar of local snacks, air conditioning, a Smart TV, a Roberts radio and Egyptian cotton linen over feather pillows and duvets. Oat or soy milk and non-allergenic bedding come on request. Windows are double glazed and the building is soundproofed between public spaces and bedrooms, though the hotel admits you may catch the odd footstep in the corridors.

Food centres on The Cambridge Street, the ground-floor café, restaurant and bar, which is open to non-residents and has a small terrace out front. Breakfast runs 7:30 am to 12 pm on weekdays and 8 am to 12 pm at weekends, and it is not included unless your rate says so. The Big One, a full English with black pudding, hash browns and two eggs your way, is £17, and crushed avocado on sourdough with poached eggs is £16.

Weekends add crispy fried chicken waffles with maple syrup and hot honey for £19, plus Cacklebean eggs Benedict with smoked salmon for £17. At weekday lunch the Reuben toastie is £15, and a combo of half a chicken schnitzel or a Reuben with Caesar salad is also £15. Dinner, served 6 pm to 9 pm, brings Queenie scallops in chilli garlic butter at £15 and roast chicken with 'nduja butter and crispy pink fir potatoes at £27.

The Cambridge St. Cheeseburger, dry-aged beef with cheddar, pickles and fries, costs £22 at lunch and dinner. Downstairs, the lower-ground-floor cocktail bar pours a £14 Espresso Martini, Negroni or Picante Margarita, and Bristol brewery Lost & Grounded supplies the draught, with a pint of Helles at £7. Don't book a weekend dinner here expecting hush: the hotel itself says the bar and restaurant get livelier in the evenings, so couples after quiet conversation should come for lunch.

Laptops are welcome in the shared spaces during the day, but from 6 pm guests are asked to put them away so the rooms downstairs feel sociable, and video calls are not allowed in public areas at any time, and staff will find a private space if you need one. Smoking and vaping are banned indoors. Rooms are serviced daily unless you opt out, and dishes from the bistro can be sent up during kitchen hours, with drinks available around the clock.

Dogs are welcome in Small and Medium rooms, the Club Suite and the Grand Suite at £20 per dog per night, which covers a dog bed, bowls and treats, and they can join you in the bistro, the Club Room and the cocktail bar on a lead. Families get free cots in Medium rooms, The Loft and both suites, while fold-up beds in the suites cost £50 a night, or £40 for the Club Suite sofa made up as a child's bed.

Late check-out costs £20 per hour when there is space, though some direct rates include noon check-out. Direct bookings get price matching and the Plan Ahead offer of up to 15% off when you book at least 15 days before arrival. Skip this hotel if stairs are a problem, because bedrooms sit on three floors above the ground with no lift. If your dates are full, Plan B is the Lime Tree Hotel at 135-137 Ebury Street, SW1W 9QU, two Georgian townhouses in Belgravia with The Buttery café.

Tate Britain on Millbank is the obvious walk from the hotel, and entry to its collection is free with no need to book. The gallery opens daily from 10 am to 6 pm, holds the world's largest collection of works by JMW Turner, and is showing the Tate Britain Commission 2026 by Zineb Sedira until 17 January 2027. Its Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant exhibition, Inside Bloomsbury, opens on 12 November 2026.

Head west instead for Pimlico Road, which the hotel recommends for its run of antiques, interiors and design-led shops, then carry on to King's Road, about 15 minutes on foot from Cambridge Street, for cafés, boutiques and galleries. The Thames is a short walk south of the hotel for a riverside stroll, which is a sensible loop after a £17 Big One or before a £14 Negroni in the basement bar.

Artist Residence London, 52 Cambridge Street, London SW1V 4QQ, in Pimlico. Check-in from 3 pm, check-out by 11 am, late check-out £20 per hour when available. 10 bedrooms over three floors, no lift. Breakfast weekdays 7:30 am to 12 pm and weekends 8 am to 12 pm, lunch 12 pm to 3 pm, dinner 6 pm to 9 pm. Bar open until 11 pm Monday to Thursday, midnight Friday and Saturday, 10:30 pm Sunday. Dogs £20 per night.