The Most Budget-Friendly Hotels to Book Near Camden, London

“What’s a hostel without a party?” asks the website for this hostel, right in the heart of Camden’s nightlife scene. Well, it’s not a place of rest. Twenty-somethings rock to the live bands and DJ vibes in the bar. They stay awake until late in the plain single-sex dorms (furnished with iron bunk beds, laminate floors and little else) and nurse their sore heads over the cooked breakfasts – happily included.

A few minutes from the tube, in leafy, upmarket Hampstead, La Gaffe is close enough to Camden (and the West End) to facilitate a good night out, but far enough away to ensure a good sleep. The rooms are quiet, cosy and well-kept, but what really makes La Gaffe special is the downstairs restaurant. Like the hotel, it has been in the Stella family for generations and serves superior pan-Italian home cooking, including dishes to order. The oven-baked sea bass with basil and rack of lamb are local favourites.

Spotless bright whites and creams can’t disguise that the rooms at the Nox are pocket-sized – with beds squeezed in so tight, there’s barely room to sit a briefcase. Nonetheless, the leafy residential location means that nights are quiet, and the Tube station, chi-chi delis, restaurants and shops of the Belsize Park neighbourhood are a short walk away.

Set in a 19th-century Victorian townhouse, with a small lawned garden, this cheap hotel in Camden still has its original mahogany banisters and 19th-century fireplaces. It’s a small place, on a sleepy backstreet in West Hampstead and while there are shops and pubs nearby, central London’s theatre and shopping district is easier to reach than Camden – in under 15 minutes from two Jubilee Line stations, both a stroll from the hotel door.

This handsome late 18th-century terraced house-hotel sits on a quiet street on the edge of buzzing Camden, a minute from Mornington Crescent Tube – close enough for a party, tranquil enough for a lie-in, and a 10-minute tube journey from central London. There are only a handful of rooms (in plain white, with marble-faced ensuites), so the hotel never feels busy, and the garden patio out back is an attractive spot for a tea or a Pimm’s on summer evenings.

The patent leather sofas and saffron sash curtains are kitschy, and you’ll need to carry your own bags up the steep stairs (there’s no lift). But with low prices and a city-centre location (the British Museum is outside the front door, with theatres in walking distance), there’s plenty to like about this small, family-run hotel. And a full English breakfast is included.

It may be one of London’s oldest hostels, but the choice Bloomsbury location (museums and theatres are within easy walking distance), genuinely warm service and careful maintenance have ensured that the Astor is still a firm favourite. And with a range of rooms (from large and small dorms to doubles) and no on-site dance floor bar, it’s a London hostel where you won’t need ear plugs.

The Enterprise is well and truly in the heart of Camden: above a Victorian pub, next to the Roundhouse concert venue and five minutes from the market, with clubs and restaurants outside the door. Unusually for London pub hotels, it has a lift – leading to a handful of rooms in muted, contemporary colours and raw brick, with high thread-count linens and artfully positioned mirrors magnifying their size. The quietest and most spacious are on the upper floor, facing north.

The rooms in this converted Georgian townhouse may be bonsai (with bathrooms as big as an aeroplane toilet), but big windows and clean, modern whites with splashes of primary colour mean they feel light and bright. A generous breakfast is included, and central London’s museums and shops are a 15-minute walk away.