Why you should experience DoubleTree London ExCeL in London, England.
DoubleTree London ExCeL is a kinetic waterfront hotel where Royal Victoria Dock's maritime ambition, aviation energy, exhibition culture and international commerce converge along one of East London's most dramatically reinvented stretches of water.
Set along Festoon Way near Connaught Bridge and just steps from Royal Victoria Dock, the hotel faces a basin opened by Prince Albert in 1855 as London's first dock purpose-designed for large steamships, with George Parker Bidder among the engineers responsible for its creation. Royal Victoria Dock introduced hydraulic machinery and direct national railway connectivity on an unprecedented scale, while the wider Royal Docks became the world's largest enclosed dock system after King George V Dock opened in 1921. Commercial shipping survived here until 1981, after which the waterfront entered a new era encompassing London City Airport, Excel London and an expanding international events district. The result is a hotel where George Parker Bidder, Prince Albert and the engineering audacity of Royal Victoria Dock give contemporary hospitality a direct relationship with the global movement that has defined this waterfront for more than 170 years.
What you should know about DoubleTree London ExCeL.
DoubleTree London ExCeL is best known for joining Hilton's DoubleTree portfolio in January 2016 when the former Ramada Hotel and Suites London Docklands reopened under the brand with Shiva Hotels as owner and operator, initially introducing a 260-room program that included 31 deluxe rooms and 35 suites. The 2016 relaunch incorporated a 112-seat waterfront restaurant and two dedicated meeting spaces, while the property subsequently expanded to its current 287-room configuration, including eight executive suites overlooking Royal Victoria Dock, Excel London, Canary Wharf and The O2. ADNEC acquired DoubleTree London ExCeL in 2021, bringing the hotel into the same organizational orbit as neighboring Excel London, which ADNEC had acquired in 2008 as part of its international expansion beyond Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. The ownership transition connected Hilton hospitality with an ADNEC portfolio whose Royal Docks investments encompass Excel London, the 2011-opened Aloft London Excel and the exhibition complex that now stages 400 events and welcomes around four million visitors annually.
George Parker Bidder provides the intellectual reference behind Bidder & Co, the hotel's 120-seat lounge named for the Royal Victoria Dock engineer and celebrated nineteenth-century calculating prodigy who later served as president of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Hilton complements Bidder & Co with Salt Port Restaurant & Deli, whose double-height waterfront room incorporates panoramic glazing, community tables, a tasting bar, show kitchen and delicatessen as an architectural response to Royal Victoria Dock. ADNEC's relationship with the surrounding waterfront deepened as Excel London expanded by 25,000 square meters, extending an events institution that opened in November 2000 and has hosted the 2009 G20 Summit, competitions during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and NHS Nightingale Hospital London during the COVID-19 pandemic. DoubleTree by Hilton, George Parker Bidder, ADNEC and Excel London consequently connect the property with successive chapters of Royal Docks history spanning Victorian engineering, international exhibitions and contemporary hospitality.
How to fold DoubleTree London ExCeL into your trip.
DoubleTree London ExCeL works as the anchor for an afternoon tracing Victorian dock engineering, twenty-first-century urban experimentation and international event culture along the Royal Docks waterfront.
Begin at Royal Victoria Dock, opened by Prince Albert in 1855 as the first London dock purpose-built for large steamships and the first to combine hydraulic machinery with national railway access, creating an immense piece of infrastructure whose original quays and water basin still define the district. Continue to The Crystal, where Siemens invested £30 million in a glass-clad building encompassing more than 6,300 square meters and opened it on September 19, 2012 with a 2,000-square-meter exhibition described at launch as the world's largest devoted to the future of cities. Conclude at Excel London, opened in November 2000 before ADNEC acquired it in 2008, where subsequent chapters have included the London 2012 Games, NHS Nightingale Hospital London and a 25,000-square-meter expansion supporting an events calendar that now attracts four million annual visitors. The progression moves from Prince Albert and George Parker Bidder's industrial waterfront through Siemens's experiment in urban technology into ADNEC's international exhibition complex, revealing why DoubleTree London ExCeL belongs to a district repeatedly reinvented around increasingly ambitious forms of global connection.
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