The Bottom Line
The hotel provides the transition between Sheffield's Millennium Square, the civic heart of the city, and the 21st century Winter Gardens and Millennium Galleries. Perhaps that is why, despite its luxurious rooms and spa, it shares this part of Sheffield's slightly temporary, unfinished feel.
Service was lackadaisical and the spa facilities disappointing.
Pros
- Spacious rooms
- Location, location, location
- Stylish furnishings
- Free Internet access wifi or with cables from the desk if you need them
Cons
- Floor to ceiling windows are overlooked by Town Hall employees
- No hotel parking and valet parking very expensive
- Modernist lobby and public rooms feel too cold and empty
- No jacuzzi in spa and other facilities not working properly
- Breakfast not included and too expensive
Description
- Address: 119 Norfolk Street, Sheffield S1 2JE, UK
- Telephone: +44 (0)114 278 2000
- Website
- Price Band: £-££. Rates with or without breakfast available. Either way, breakfast is too expensive - give it a miss.
- Facilities:
- Spa with treatments, pool and gym
- Two restaurants and champagne bar
- In-room technology and entertainment
- Pet Friendly
Guide Review - Luxury Yorkshire Hotel Review - Mercure St. Paul Hotel and Spa in Sheffield
You can't beat it for location, sitting between Millennium Square with its historic Town Hall and Peace Gardens on the one side and Sheffield's temperate glasshouse,the Winter Garden, and Millennium Galleries on the other.
There's nothing really wrong with it - rooms are spacious, modern, clean; public areas glamorous in an empty modernist sort of way.
But somehow it doesn't quite hang together.
Off to a Bad Start
Having to schlep my luggage up ramps and around corners to the entrance didn't get things off to a very impressive start. We arrived as a group, in a coach, but the hotel does not have a suitable entry for large vehicles so bags had to be dragged in - in the rain. There's also no hotel parking and the valet service is expensive.The hotel's spa has a generously-sized swimming pool but the sauna was not hot enough, the ice igloo not particularly cold and the gym really overheated.
Disconcerting Proximity
If my room is on an upper floor of a hotel, I like to keep the curtains open to enjoy the view as long as possible. On a chilly January day, in a chilly drizzle, the constant flow of water in Sheffield's Peace Garden was just too cold to look at for long. And when I went to draw the curtains, an office worker in the Town Hall, mere feet away, looked into my room. Even fully dressed, I felt uncomfortably exposed.As is common in the travel industry, the writer was provided with complimentary accommodation for the purpose of reviewing the property. While it has not influenced this review, About.com believes in full disclosure of all potential conflicts of interest. For more information, see our ethics policy.
