How Asian hotel brands are bringing the Eastern spa experience to London
- Hotel brands including Mandarin Oriental, The Peninsula, Raffles and Six Senses are about to arrive in London, all with signature wellness facilities in tow
- That will provide competition to properties such as Claridge’s, with its new André Fu-designed spa, and The Connaught, with its Aman Spa
I’m three floors below ground in what must be one of central London’s most serene spaces.
This cocoon of limestone, wood and soft lighting is the first spa that Claridge’s hotel has had in its 166-year history and it has been designed by Hong Kong architect André Fu.
Throughout Brexit, Covid-19 and four prime ministers, the spa took shape in the clay beneath Claridge’s.
To get here, I wove through the commuters and shoppers on the Mayfair pavements and through the hotel’s lobby, lively with guests. But past the reception desks and having descended in a newly built lift, all that’s forgotten.
At the entrance is a soothing installation featuring a suspended Japanese glass work that’s part art, part water feature. It’s all unmistakably Eastern.
“[Claridge’s] vision was to create an experience that was authentic to spa culture [so] we opted to create an experience that is rooted in the spirituality of the East,” Fu says.
“I felt that integrating my own experiences visiting traditional Japanese temples and Zen gardens in Kyoto would promote a genuine sense of mindfulness and balance.
“My work is always about crossing cultures and I have imagined Claridge’s Spa as a world that captures an expression of that. The overall feeling is an escape into a world of serenity and tranquillity – you’re in the heart of London but transported to a world of calm.”
How architect and designer André Fu crosses cultures
The 7,000-square-foot (650-square-metre) spa includes a pool, sauna, steam room and seven treatment rooms, each with private en suite changing rooms complete with Japanese toilets.
The signature treatment is the Bamboo and Silk Ritual. It begins with a foot bath using koji rice water to cleanse, then a reassuringly strong massage with heated, herb-filled muslin poultices and bamboo sticks, and finishes with a gentle facial using silk thimbles.
Claridge’s Spa also offers treatments by A-lister-favourite skincare brand Augustinus Bader, as well as FaceGym, the cult London label that specialises in “facial workouts”. Also on-site is a salon by British celebrity hairdresser Josh Wood.
However grand and storied a hotel, creating space for an impressive spa is a smart move given current expectations for well-being facilities in luxury properties.
Claridge’s sister hotel, The Connaught, another Mayfair grande dame, has the Aman Spa – the first and so far only stand-alone spa by the brand founded by Indonesian hotelier Adrian Zecha.
Then there’s the competition from an influx of Asian brands about to arrive in London. Mandarin Oriental, The Peninsula, Raffles and Six Senses are all due to open properties in the British capital in 2023, and all will bring well-being facilities with them.
Raffles is creating a spa and wellness space beneath its new hotel, which is taking shape in a historic building in Whitehall completed in 1906. It is due to open in spring 2023.
The spa, overseen by French beauty brand Guerlain, and health club, run by fitness experts Pillar, will span four subterranean floors and include treatment rooms, a swimming pool, sauna and steam rooms.
The opening of the space is a response to the growing demand for “wellness-led experiences”, a spokesperson for the company says, and will sustain Raffles Hotel and Resorts “as one of the world’s leading brands in well-being”.
“With societal habits shifting and wellness taking on new and further-reaching meaning in a post-pandemic world, the desire and need for overall well-being and its positive effects cannot be understated,” adds Emlyn Brown, global vice-president of well-being at Accor, Raffles’ parent company.
The Peninsula and Mandarin Oriental both have new-build hotels slated to open in spring 2023.
Details of London’s first Peninsula hotel, which will open at Hyde Park Corner, are under wraps.
The Mandarin Oriental Mayfair, a boutique property with 50 guest rooms, will include an indoor 25-metre swimming pool, sauna, vitality pool, relaxation room “and the myriad bespoke wellness treatments that abound in a Mandarin Oriental spa”, says a Mandarin Oriental spokeswoman.
Over at sister property Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, the spa was upgraded as part of the host building’s most extensive restoration in 117 years, just before the world locked down in 2019.
Adam Tihany, who designed The Landmark Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong’s lobby and Amber restaurant, oversaw the redesign.
The new spa features 13 treatment rooms, an Oriental Suite with two massage beds, and a room designed for traditional Chinese medicine consultations and treatments.
The spa also includes the Amethyst Crystal Steam Room, Vitality Pool and Zen Colour Therapy Relaxation area, the type of spaces Fans of MO (the brand’s loyalty programme) will be familiar with.
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On the other side of Hyde Park, Thai luxury hotel brand Six Senses is due to open its first British property later in 2023, set within the art deco former department store Whiteleys.
Given its reputation within the wellness arena, the property will of course include a spa.
Six Senses CEO Neil Jacobs promises “a best-in-class spa” that will go into the basement level with large light wells from the lobby above.
It will include 12 treatment rooms, a 20-metre indoor swimming pool and an Alchemy Bar, where herbs, salts and essential oils will be blended to make scrubs and masks.
