Quality time

Tackle another half mile and Hyde Park, Harvey Nicks and Harrods heave into view.

The Royal Court Theatre is 13 minutes away - we timed it. All the Victoria terminals (rail, coach and tube) are under 10 minutes

We (that's grandfather, daughter and two kids) ambled down to Tate Britain from the Quality Hotel, Westminster, on a Sunday morning after a leisurely and excellent Full English (which the kids topped up from the generous help-yourself Continental spread, with its pastries and intriguing meat slices).

We waved at the James Bond types we imagined were looking out from Spooks Tower just over Vauxhall Bridge and within seconds were in Avalon. That's quite a journey, even for an establishment as wonderfully situated as the Quality Hotel is.

The Sleep of Arthur in Avalon (below) is the final work of Edward Burne Jones. He died with, he estimated, two months work to do on it. It shows the mythical king not dead but sleeping in his kingdom in the west, waiting to be called back. It's a must-see for anyone familiar with the fantastic collection of pre-Raphaelite paintings in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

It's an extraordinary work, housed by a private collector in a purpose-built museum in Puerto Rico since 1963. Do see it if you can.

And if you have kids with you, keep them occupied in the gallery with the Art Trolley (cleverly and perhaps mischievously sponsored by Tate and Lyle). There's loads of materials for them to use in copying any of the works in the galleries or making their own. We ended up with a loo-roll hamster in a cage with paper straw and a waterfall with giant red fish.

Watching King Arthur dozing in the giant painting I thought a clever PR might be able to make a connection with the comfortable (and for London incredibly quiet) bedrooms at the Quality Hotel. We were the management's guests in a spacious room with a generous double bed and two twins (kids under 12 are free). All the usual add-ons that travellers take for granted these days - tea and coffee making, mini-bar, air conditioning, wi-fi and the rest. You can hook up to Playstation via the TV for a fee.

There are other plus factors at the Quality Hotel that you can't always take for granted - great staff, for instance, who were excellent with the kids (not always the case, as we know to our cost). It's a pleasantly updated 19th Century building, which guarantees odd corridors and slightly strange stairwells. What American visitors (and we met lots of them) called 'quaint'. We called it character - but we're British.

Dining in the hotel is excellent, with a modern large screen café bar ambience in the lounge as well as a more formal restaurant which does special menus from time to time: we just missed an Indian night.

But, in keeping with one of the main attractions of the hotel ie how reachable everything is, there's a host of dining alternatives just round the corner in Wilton Road - Indian, Chinese, Mexican, Italian - as well as a pretty big Sainsbury's.

The hotel fronts Eccleston Square, which takes its name from the Cheshire village of Eccleston, part of the estates of the landowners, the Dukes of Westminster. Originally low-lying swamp which was drained in the early 17th century, it was planned as a three-acre square in 1828 by Thomas Cubitt (1788-1855).

Over the past 20 years, the square's garden committee has replanted the whole garden to give year-round interest. There are many specialist collections: ceanothus, camellias, climbing and shrub roses. In 2006, a Woollemi pine was donated to the square (one of the first introduced into England). The species was thought to have been extinct until found recently in Australia.

We were able to examine part of this extraordinary garden as we ate breakfast - it's just over the road from the hotel and is open to the public on Sundays. The same day, and within a mile, are a whole host of garden squares open to the public. At www.opensquares.org you can get full details.

Other useful bits:
Quality Hotel, 82-83 Eccleston Square, London SW1 1PS
01207 834 8042
www.hotels-westminster.com
enquiries@hotels-westminster.com
www.tate.org.uk
If you must take a car, there's an NCP 10 minutes walk away in Warwick Way (about £25 for 24 hours)
Great new local playground behind the Queen Mother Sports Centre on Vauxhall Bridge Road.
Try the Blushing Senorita cocktail (non-alcoholic for kids) at the Mexican opposite the now-closed Elusive Camel on Wilton Road. I would give you the name, but after one too many Havana Zombies (very alcoholic for grandparents) I can't possibly remember it.

Other stuff we did in London is in my blog titled History in the making under Culture.

So there we have it. There are, let's face it, hundreds of good three-star establishments in London, but I would argue passionately that this Westminster hotel has three unbeatable qualities going for it. The first is location, the second is location and the third (all together now) is LOCATION!