Hidden in the bowels of Blakes Hotel — the discreet five-star hotel beloved of discreet celebrities (I spotted Mark Ronson slinking out of the restaurant), there is a small, low-ceilinged antechamber, upholstered with plush velvet cushions and, at the moment, home to three large gongs.
This luxe cocoon is currently the setting for the hotel’s yoga and sound-therapy class, which is running this month as part of its January Bliss at Blakes programme.
It’s a 90-minute class that puts kundalini yoga — heavy on breathing and meditation, low on acrobatics — to a soundtrack of melodious, reverberating gongs. Yogi Eve Latil will guide you through the moves, and sound therapist Slavomir Latko provides the music.
As the yoga itself is not too difficult, this is a class pitched at those who’d like to flex a muscle and exhume some cobwebs. Do not expect a calorie- burn: it is zen, mostly completed with eyes closed, and much of it is done while lying on the mat or sitting cross-legged — an antidote to January’s misery and inertia.
The gongs are extraordinary — the crescendos and echoes create an epic, soaring soundtrack that is curiously calming. At one point Latko places the gongs on your chest and strikes them, sending the reverberations through your body. I have no idea if it’s doing anything, but it feels healing and stops you thinking of anything much at all — which is, surely, the last word in bliss.
The sound-therapy class costs £30 for 90 minutes. Bliss at Blakes is running all month at 33 Roland Gardens, Kensington, SW7, blakeshotels.com
