It’s not hard to find beautiful hotel spas in this city. London is full of low-lit, marble-lined, whale song-soundtracked havens where you can hand over your mind and body for an hour or two. More challenging to find, however, are those dedicated not only to delivering a delicious massage or longevity optimisation, but also the more human (and arduous) task of helping people survive modern life.
So I was pleased and perhaps a little surprised to discover exactly this at the freshly opened, terrifically glossy Six Senses London at the Whiteley in Bayswater. “Our vision was to create something far more integrated than the traditional idea of a spa,” wellness director Taffryn Kinsey Ellis explained when we met before my visit. “What felt missing in London was a space that truly supports how people live today … We wanted to blend science and nature in a way that is approachable rather than intimidating.” My ears pricked up.
Accessed by a sweeping staircase in the gleaming hotel lobby, the underground spa certainly keeps up appearances. It is vast and beautiful, but also cosy, inviting and, crucially, not at all intimidating. Despite being stuffed to the brim with the latest and greatest wellness wizardry, from PEMF (pulsed electromagnetic field) and compression therapy to electro-muscle training, it happily lacks the bravado and clinical feeling of so many performance-driven destinations.
Here, as it should be, wellness is considered to be an emotional matter as much as a physical one. The aim is to meet clients where they are, then to restore, surprise and delight them.
Arriving topped-up with cortisol and carrying a hefty sleep deficit, I was swiftly put to work — if you can call it that — to slow down, regroup and reconnect with myself.
I padded, slippered, from a wellness screening that analysed 50 biomarkers to ensure my prescribed treatments were on the right track, to a red-light therapy bed where I had the most nourishing nap, emerging with bones warmed and mind steadied.
Next came a swishy session in a pitch-black egg-shaped flotation pod, where I bobbed to the sound of waves and the sensory deprivation did remarkable things to push aside my mental checklists. Afterwards, a lymphatic body reset treatment by Annee de Mamiel — one of my favourite London practitioners — worked wonders to release tension and nudge my nervous system back towards baseline.
Lucky me, because it was all very lovely. But the pièce de résistance and closing ceremony was an hour-long consultation and remedy-making session with medical herbalist Rebecca Collison-Walker in a spectacular apothecary where dried herbs hung from the ceiling and brown bottled tinctures lined the walls. Having dissected my list of ailments, in itself a thrillingly indulgent exercise, we agreed that there was quite some work to be done.
On my departure the next day, a bespoke herbal blend awaited to help me on my way. Indeed, the so-called Alchemy Bar is the part of the opening that Kinsey Ellis is “without question” most proud of. “It captures everything we wanted wellness here to be,” she told me. “It is sensory, hands-on, and rooted in connection.” She’s not wrong. And if you can, I suggest you book in. sixsenseslondon.com
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