Sleeping in a shipping container: Snoozebox London

I think my old favourite small-space-for-a-small-price in London has been ousted but one of my favourite places to stay in London in the last few years has been Snoozebox Olympic Park, a hotel of very compact rooms made out of shipping containers.

By London standards, it’s a pretty good price, especially considering you get your own private room with ensuite bathroom – and unlike my other low cost London stay, you get enough room to stand up. The downside is that it’s a bit of a trek if your London adventure isn’t right out east, because it’s at Pudding Mill Lane DLR station, on a bit of abandoned car park, right opposite the ABBA Arena. It’s very handy for Stratford and it’s walking distance to the Olympic Park as its name suggests, so I find it’s utterly irresistible to start my morning with a swim in the amazing 50m pool at the Aquatics Centre.

Snoozebox, on the left, and Abba Arena, on the right, as seen from underneath Pudding Mill Lane DLR station. The hotel is a stack of black-painted shipping containers, looking surprisingly subtle, whereas the Abba Arena is a kind of 3D diamond with ABBA on the front pulsing in a rainbow of colours.

The hotel itself comprises twenty 40ft shipping containers, arranged in two lines of five containers each and on two floors, with walkways around the upper level and stairs at each end. Each container is then divided into four rooms of around 7 x 10ft and designed ingeniously to maximise the space.

Snoozebox from the outside; black-painted containers with large white numbers on the side stacked two high and surrounded by a green fence. Between the fence and the pavement, the ground is very overgrown. Behind it all, you can see Pudding Mill Lane DLR station.

The bulk of the space is occupied by a double bed. There’s storage underneath it for bags and shoes. An open wardrobe unit also manages to double as a wardrobe up to the single bunk bed that runs perpendicular to the double bed across the feet end. There’s a TV on the wall in the corner of the bunk bed, positioned so all three occupants can just about see it.

The wardrobe unit which doubles as a ladder up to the upper bed.

At the back of the open wardrobe unit is your electricity socket – not very convenient for using your phone in bed while it’s charging but beggars can’t be choosers. Underneath that are some surprisingly capacious drawers and the rungs of the ladder are basically little cubbyholes, where Snoozebox leaves you bottles of water, since it’s not recommended to drink the tap water.

The green frosted glass of the bathroom door/wall and the wardrobe unit.

On the other side of the wardrobe is your bathroom, which is really a narrow wet room with a frosted glass wall and sliding door. I only ever stay here on your own; if you’re sharing it, you might want to send the other person outside to admire the arena views while you’re in there because there’s not a whole lot of privacy.

Over the toilet is a rack of towels, the sink is tiny and comes with a collection of miniature toiletries in tiny squeezy bottles and then the other end is a shower.

The bathroom door slid open, showing a hint of toilet, the tiny sink and the towels on the rack on the wall.

Finally, your window is a porthole in the door and your “curtains” a big black plastic disc that you hang from a hook over the porthole or store on the outer bathroom wall when you want light. You have a remote control to turn on the heating or air conditioning and I realise that I’m a polar bear but I want the AC on every moment I’m in there. No worries about inadequate insulation in a shipping container: it’s more than warm enough.

The main bed, which is a double with bedding, right next to the door which has a circular window in it.

So, it’s not terribly spacious. No one’s going to be standing for longer than they need to take off their shoes and sit on the bed but it’s enough, especially if you’re in there on your own.

A selfie in the bathroom mirror, with the frosted glass walls reflected and the sink in the centre.

It’s surprisingly quiet too, considering you’ve got the DLR line right there and the ABBA Arena right opposite. It also has a large bar which provides breakfast for an extra cost and in the evening, it’s always packed with women of a certain age wearing a lot of Spandex and sequins. And yet, despite always having been put on the Arena side, I don’t ever remember being kept awake by noise. Maybe I tend to have plans for the evening in London and get back after they’ve all gone home? Or maybe I’m just cheerfully oblivious to drunken squawking?

A view out of the circular window by night over the Abba Arena

It’s not luxury, that’s for sure. But it’s clean and comfortable and private and you’re not going to find much else for the price. For this coming Friday night, 13th February, it’s £68.38. A random week night in March is £61. You can do cheaper at a hostel (bunk bed in a room full of noisy strangers!) or a private room in someone’s house (no, for so many reasons) or at Zedwell (but no room to stand up and mixed shared bathrooms). You can definitely do more convenient than Pudding Mill Lane. But all in all, it’s one of my favourite places to stay in London.