The Lion Hotel

We visited the Lion Inn in September 2005. In fact just returned home this evening and can't wait to warn other people about it! It is a shame because the Hotel could be made magnificent with the open fires and the oldness of it all! We were first given a room with no shower, apparently the shower was over the bath but not working. After getting the key card and getting into the very scary and noisy lift to the third floor and seeing the room was not very big and very warm with notices fastened to the windows 'please do not alter the windows - very old and waiting to be replaced' and WITHOUT A SHOWER we promptly returned back to the reception desk to ask to be moved to a room with a shower. After much negotiation we managed to get a first floor room with shower for the weekend. My husband walks with two sticks and couldn't believe the uneven floors and the steps = two up three down etc. The floor boards felt that they would give way any minute. The room was a little better than the first but we were above a machine thing that kept droning on all night so the windows had to be shut and it was very warm! Also the karaoke bar across the alley at the back of the hotel went on until midnight! Don't have the breakfast - it was horrid! It costs you an extra £10 on top of what you already paid for your room and it was not nice. Luke warm bacon and sloppy scrambled egg and I don't know where they got the fresh orange juice from. So on the second morning we missed breakfast and had to explain to the very nice but very foreign receptionist that we didn't want to pay for Sunday Breakfast cos we hadn't had one! Oh also the Bar - on the Friday it was empty and we had to fetch staff from via reception to get a drink. and on the Saturday there was a 21st Birthday in the Ballroom - but the overspill was in the Bar, a bit noisy but STILL had to fetch a barman one guest saying he had had to wait ½hr for a drink. Shame - Shrewsbury is a lovely place but don't stay here!

A last minute booking got my single room for £40, a saving of £39 on the advertised rack rate, representing excellent value. The room, small but perfectly formed, was at the front of the 17th century coaching inn, overlooking the main high street of Wyle Cop. Decor and cleanliness could not be faulted although the rabbit warren of corridors leading to it had a certain faded grandeur about it (some threadbear carpets etc). Unfortunately with no ventilation in the room (windows permanently sealed shut) I started to feel like a pet left in a car in summer despite the temperature outside being nothing higher than a pleasant spring evening. Perhaps this is a cunning plan on the part of the management to force you into the bar/restaurant areas! Come nightfall the general hustle and bustle noise of the street was replaced with the shouts of lager drinking groups, car horns and sirens until beyond the early hours, which I accept is not the fault of the hotel but did scupper any hopes of a peaceful night's sleep. A word of warning for anyone wishing to use the car park however - with a very narrow approach through the coaching arch, and a jumble of spaces beyond perhaps those driving anything more than a medium family saloon or those without power steering should rethink their transport!Despite all this I would be more than happy to return should I find myself in the area again.