London’s newest hotel opening, Six Senses London, comes with a twist. While it combines history and design with top-tier service, the Six Senses brand adds a strong wellness focus to London’s high-street hotel roster. Here, you can check in for a great meal, beautiful sleep and lovely massage, but leave with tinctures that cure ailments and relieve stressful areas of your life.
That’s the Six Senses goal, after all, and its prevalence across Asia is now spreading to more urban European centers. And it couldn’t come soon enough. These are our top five reasons why Six Senses London is the city-center resort, just a stone’s throw from Notting Hill, for you.
The spa
Six Senses is known globally for its focus on wellness and well-being. It starts from the moment you arrive and step into the spacious lobby with soaring ceilings and a beautiful grand staircase. Take a look at the daily calendar of activities, which can include things like guided yoga or meditation.
Reception is tucked into a discreet corner off to the right where arrivals enjoy a welcome kombucha prepared onsite to kick start their stay and scented towel. It’s the first sign of many here that highlights the spa aspect of Six Senses.
One floor below the lobby is where the incredible spa awaits. A beautiful ceiling sculpture dangles from dozens of strings representing rain drops falling into a small fountain below.
Tailored to each person, the treatment menu here is vast, yet customizable. This is as much a destination spa as it is a luxury hotel. And that’s what makes this one of the most prominent reasons to visit. Traditional massages and beauty treatments are an option, but so are cryotherapy, a flotation pod, quartz crystal bed, lymphatic drainage and a Turkish hammam.
With 13 treatment rooms, this is no tiny hotel spa, and locals represent a large number of clientele. My lymphatic massage was gentle and relaxing, exactly what you want after a redeye flight from the U.S.
Also part of the facility is an indoor swimming pool, impressive gym decked out in retro-style hardwood paneling and leather-bedecked workout equipment, and sauna. If you’re looking for long-term results, a wellness screening will analyze your body and determine the best strategies to soothe what ails you from muscle pain to digestion issues. Therapists specially trained in biohacking techniques set this spa apart from most others in the city.
Six Senses also offers its sleep wellness program, which can track your current sleep patterns with special gadgets in your room. Moisture-wicking linens and a range of aromatherapy accessories are also part of the process.
The alchemy bar
This venue is the star of the show here. A rotating team of experts staffs the alchemy bar and provides their expertise on how to heal and cure guests and locals using natural ingredients. You name it, they’ve got it here, and almost all of it is sourced locally around the United Kingdom. What isn’t from the region is brought sustainably (the coffee beans arrive by sailboat rather than freight plane, for example).
This should come as no surprise for a hotel that has more than 1,000 plants in glass cases, growing from pots and near the entrance (two full trees stand on either side of the inside entrance foyer). Crystals are strategically placed around the property, and a shaman guided the architects in their planning and eventual launch of the hotel.
What many may not realize is that the hotel also has a private members’ club that focuses mostly on food and beverage outlets, but also gives them access to the spa and fitness center. Following in the footsteps of other well-known club brands (like The Ned), Six Senses has a stringent member application that assures that the right people are mingling and gathering with each other here. It’s a place to do business and meet new friends.
The dining
On the ground level is Whiteley’s Kitchen, the all-day dining restaurant serving a range of dishes, all of which rely on produce and ingredients sourced locally. The culinary team visited more than two dozen British farms and suppliers to select everything they plan to use on the menu. An open-plan kitchen means that guests can watch chefs prepare their meals.
The breakfast buffet includes Six Senses’ tonic shot cart with different recipes designed for rejuvenation, energy boosting or digestion. This is the perfect way to start the day although I admit the apple vinegar option was a bit strong for my liking, but the science behind it is indisputable.
Most of the dishes on the menu have a special twist (my delicious shakshuka, for example, came as an omelet rather than the traditional baked preparation). While the hotel has its own coffee and pastry shop on the other side of the lobby, the breads and pastries here (including gluten-free options) are delightful. The sourdough bread here is killer and is hard to turn down.
Later in the day, the menu shifts to an international spread. Of course, you’ll find fish and chips and a piled-high burger, but also roasted veggies with hummus and ricotta gnocchi.
Place is the second-floor restaurant reserved for hotel guests as well as club members (this is the first members club for Six Senses in the world). Try the clay oven-baked flatbreads, delicious Caesar salad, whole sea bream fish and lengthy cocktail menu.
Six Senses London mixologists here deserve credit for creating a mocktail version of every cocktail on offer here (no Shirley Temples here). In fact, nearly half the selection on the menu focuses on low to no-alcohol cocktails, a growing trend around the world. The sommelier specializes in finding unique, special labels for the list, which includes both alcohol-free bottles and an organic Champagne.
The rooms
Enormous rooms are the norm. While the views are not earth-shattering (rooms face either the internal courtyard or neighboring streets), the natural light and living spaces are. At the touch of a button, you can open or close the drapery. In some rooms, they open directly to a garden terrace.
Expect every conceivable amenity you can think of when it comes to a luxury resort from chic robes and slippers plus take-home tote bags in the closets to underfloor heating in bathrooms and bespoke toiletries that smell like a Thai garden.
Soaking tubs and glass-walled showers have views of the outside. They can also be closed off for privacy via curtains drawn from the bedroom. Scales, double vanities with a fine stash of towels and eco-friendly toiletries are on hand. We loved the chewable toothpaste tablets in glass jars and razors made with cork handles.
With just over 100 rooms and suites, this boutique hotel has sumptuous living spaces. Pillowtop mattresses come with pillow menus and bedside power outlets with the latest USB charging capabilities. Side tables, Smeg coffeemakers, minibars stocked with local products and complimentary glass bottles of water are the norm.
For those that fall in love with the Six Senses lifestyle, there are furnished apartments and residences. They come with full access to the rest of the property’s amenities. All of the rooms are spacious here, but families are not a focus. The vibe here leans more towards jetsetting adults rather than toddler-toting tourists.
The history
This was once the Whiteley’s Department Store, currently a Grade II-listed historic building. Here, the staff could source anything you wanted to buy. Legend has it, they could get anything “from a pin to an elephant,” and they have done both.
This was the city’s original department store and was known for having the longest architectural façade in Europe. The original grand staircase was restored and reinstated here, even though this building was rebuilt from the ground up.
It is in a unique location, which is re-energizing the Bayswater area with high-end dining and events. If you want to explore the neighborhood, the hotel’s electric house car can take you wherever you need to go.
Whiteley’s was the origin of personal shoppers and was a London institution. Today, it has been reborn as a lifestyle development with shops, restaurants and of course the Six Senses. The hotel staff continues to wow and is clearly proud of this latest urban Six Senses. It opened only in March of this year. You’ll find a dedication to sustainability and new-age well-being. But, there is also an emphasis on traditional luxury hospitality. That makes this Six Senses a destination for a wide range of travelers to London.
And its affiliation with IHG One Rewards means you can earn or redeem points during your stay. Elite status members can also take advantage of the many benefits for the program’s most frequent travelers. And if paying with an IHG co-branded credit card, your points balance will grow even faster.
