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Did a Practice Session in the Hotel Ballroom Cause Tampa Bay to Lose the Game?

Where: One Hamilton Place, London, United Kingdom, W1J 7QY

The weather in London isn’t quite on a par with the weather in Florida, as the poor Tampa Bay Buccaneers found out to their cost this weekend. According to the St Petersburg Times, the Bucs had to practice for their NFL Wembley gig against the New England Patriots in the ballroom at the Intercontinental Park Lane because it was too wet to hit the turf at Wembley itself.

NFL officials did offer them a room at Wembley to practice in, but they stuck to the ballroom – which holds up to 750 people, and, according to the hotel website, features “natural daylight through floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Park Lane and the Royal Parks”. Perhaps they were hoping for a little more grace on the pitch, too.

It didn’t work, unfortunately – the Pats thrashed them 35-7. Still, it’s not every day you get to exercise within spitting distance of Buckingham Palace is it, chaps? That’s something to tell the kids. Maybe.

Tags: Hotel Bars / London Hotels / Luxury Hotels / Intercontinental Hotels / → All Tags

Skip the Minibar, Hit the Bar Late at the InterContinental Park Lane

Where: One Hamilton Place, London, United Kingdom, W1J 7QY

You know when you’ve been out late somewhere, and you get back to your hotel wanting one more before you go to bed, but you don’t want it to come from a minibar because it’s way too expensive (and also a bit depressing)?

The Intercontinental Park Lane hears you. Its bar used to be open till one a.m. on weekdays and midnight on Sundays, and although we have some extremely happy memories of drinking there with the Miami Dolphins when they were in town, it was a bit too hotel lobby-like to have a proper atmosphere.

So we were intrigued to hear today that on Tuesday, the hotel will open what it calls its Late Lounge. For a start, it’s open seven nights a week till three a.m., which should do just fine for most people. And they’ve jazzed up the old bar space: there used to be the bar area, then a ramshackle cluster of chairs in what felt like a room next door, backing onto the corridor; now there will be floor-to-ceiling curtains to snuggle you away from the corridor, extra seating (on velvet chairs, no less), waitress service and a DJ.

There’s a new menu, too, although that won’t be perusable till next week. Sounds promising though. Now all we need is a repeat visit from the Dolphins, please.