Clubrooms London Gatwick Lounge

The Clubrooms Lounge London Gatwick North Terminal is an excellent top tier pay in lounge.

Essentially just one large room, with high quality a la carte catering at your seat, and great seating it is too, with new sofas and plush chairs.

The difference compared to a normal lounge is the extra money poured in to decoration and and service and, by virtue of high pricing, the few passengers admitted.

The walls are wood panelled, and there is at seat service.

The only real issue is sometimes gaining access: often the lounge is packed to it's capacity of 40 guests.

London Gatwick North Clubrooms lounge review

The Clubrooms London Gatwick Lounge may be an excellent lounge, however the first major issue is actually finding it.

To find the Clubrooms London Gatwick Lounge, turn left once you are past the duty free maze, head under the Brewdog, and right into the small corridor where there are the easyjet and Plaza lounges. Ignore the No1 lounge ahead of you, and take the lift down two floors past the LGW Emirates lounge, and on the same floor as the very standard Airport Services lounge.

On the left as you exit the lift are the black double doors giving a very sombre entrance, and once in there is a small ante room where the staff will take your invite if you are entering using a Qatar Airways voucher.

Around the corner, and the lounge seems like a very rectangular room, with the only natural daylight coming from some frosted windows fronted by curtains.

Instead of the small separate rooms you may be used to at Gatwick South, the clubrooms lounge north is just one large room, but with high quality furnishings, and even excellent chairs distinguishing the lounge.

However, the tables are very low and not designed to eat from comfortably.

There are a few seating areas around the walls which are in smaller nooks which give a little more privacy, but they will be taken very quickly.

The only real variant to this is the vast dining room table, which is opposite the bar area, which has a very odd setup, like a couple of bookshelves plonked in the middle of the room.

The Clubrooms Lounges at Gatwick used to be well known as the top-tier lounge offering from No1 Lounges, with high pricing deterring all but the well heeled.

However, the Clubrooms London Gatwick Lounge is used by Qatar Airways for it's three flights a day, and as such the lounge can get packed at these times, and then some. During this time the lounge will also admit children.

Food

The catering in the London Gatwick North Clubrooms is a step above most lounges.

There is at seat a la carte catering, with menus handed out by lounge reception. The food is actually pretty good, with unusual modern slants on English classics, such as the Sussex Ploughman.

There is also a small shelf with snacks, such as brownies and biscuits.

At breakfast times the Eggs Benedict is good, but the Full English is very uninspiring.

Bar

There is no real walk up bar.

Instead, there is the boockshelf. This is oddly positioned right in the middle of the lounge, with a rack of spirits on the top shelf, at hip height.

There is also a fridge with wine, beer and cider, and there are some quite nice drops.

However, the set up is badly designed. There is no menu, and no barman. Instead you have to ask the waiters what is available, and they quickly reel of a list. But to actually see the wine, or vineyard, you have to walk up to the bookshelf and they have to take out each bottle from the ankle high fridge, and show it to you.

Oddly, there is no free Champagne, or even sparkling wine. Despite the cost of admission, each glass is charged, at 9GBP a pop, or 50 if you want a bottle of Moet.

An area for hot drinks can be found towards the rear of the lounge, where you can at least make yourself a cup of coffee.

Business Facilities

The only workspace for a laptop is the large dining room table.

Free wifi.

Press reader.

There is a small TV area, with just two seats and a TV screwed high to the wall. It is very rarely used, except before the Qatar flights when some passengers use it as a prayer area.

Bathrooms

In lounge, but again badly designed, with just two small bathrooms off a small corridor at the back of the lounge.

They do have a wonderful marble tile effect, with a gold rimmed mirror.

Access

Pay 38GBP on the door, or in advance.

You can use Loungekey, but there is a hefty surcharge of 15GBP.

For a couple of hours before the Qatar Airways flights, which can be up to three times a day, the lounge is mainly reserved for Qatar passengers, who will need to collect a voucher from checkin.