School trip to London early 80's
Ah yes... 15 years old and off to London we did go. No idea of the name of the place, but it was one of those old Victorian buildings that had been bought by some gentlemen of a forrin nature and turned into a "hotel" 4 floors of rooms, 2 bars and a "disco" (dance-floor, one mirror ball and a spotlight)

Our room (on the basement floor) (4 of us sharing) had its own bog and shower at least, even if it was built into the corner like an afterthought.

The walls were covered in "Beauty board" that magic stuff that looked like pine sheets until you realised it was a laminate plastic, hiding damp stained wood-chip wallpaper behind it.

Beds were ok I suppose, nice enough and the room was just big enough for the 4 beds to fit into. huge big old Victorian windows looking straight out onto a wall, and big high ceilings. and then we discovered where the disco dance-floor was.

right above our room.

After a sleepless night, we awoke to the smells of bacon and eggs... and found we were getting a "continental" breakfast. we actually thought the bread roll and orange juice was a starter, and were most annoyed to find that was our lot.

we were told by our bus driver that afternoon that some Scandinavian schoolgirls were on the 3rd floor, and our mission was to investigate if this was true at about 1 in the morning. only we were caught out by one of the male teachers coming back down the stairs after "talking to" one of the female teachers... the bastard. And, according to our bus driver, there was indeed some "rather nice young ladies" on the 2nd floor that were "mad for it". It never occurred to us to ask how this 50 something bald bloke knew this.......

anyway, on the 2nd night the bog overflowed, and the shower broke and we had to be moved upstairs to sleep in the only available room. the disco. In sleeping bags.

because of this "inconvenience" our final night was much better having been "upgraded" to the "posh" rooms on the 2nd floor, these were the same as the basement ones, but had daylight. Went to have a shower before going home and discovered there was no hot water, so

I wandered down the hall to the other shower room and discovered that there were indeed some fine young ladies staying there, as one of them was in the shower, and yes they were indeed "mad for it" unfortunately, I know this only as our maths teacher was the one finding this out.
( TBL I posted this on, Thu 17 Jan 2008, 18:24, Reply)