First look at the wellness-focused Six Senses London luxury hotel

Not so long ago, you’d mostly find Six Senses resorts in dreamy, faraway locales like secluded Vietnamese archipelagos, set amidst the mountaintop blue pine forests of Bhutan or hiding among the leafy vineyards of Portugal’s Douro Valley.

Lately, though, this well-to-do wellness luxury chain (which was acquired by IHG in 2019) has turned its attention to splashy city properties. It opened an outpost in Rome in 2023 and another in Kyoto in 2024.

Now, its latest urban iteration has begun welcoming guests through its doors, which happen to be in the former grand facade of one of London’s best-known department stores.

Its location in Bayswater does have some locals scratching their heads, but plenty more seem to be curious about the hotel’s enormous, state-of-the-art wellness center and its member’s club — the first branded by Six Senses.

I had the opportunity to drop by for a couple nights shortly after its opening and found a lavish hideaway brimming with intriguing amenities and some fabulous people-watching.

Here’s what it’s like staying at the new Six Senses London and what you should take advantage of during a visit.

First impressions

Although not as jam-packed as some of London’s other neighborhoods, Bayswater is still bustling. But you’d never know it after passing through the hotel’s ornate entrance. The building was formerly Whiteley’s department store, and its grand entry was carefully moved and reassembled from its original location around the corner on Queensway by architecture firm Foster + Partners (pause a moment to admire the statues to either side of the door, representing summer and winter, respectively).

Once inside, you cross a footbridge past 80-foot-high eucalyptus sculptures sprouting from a level below. This is the first step into a whimsical garden of sorts, populated with over 1,000 live plants, crystals carefully placed here and there by a resident healer, repurposed jewelry and haberdashery cases in a nod to the edifice’s heritage. Then there are the fanciful sculptures of dragonflies, rabbits and mushrooms, not to mention inviting booths aplenty from which to watch the parade of fashion-forward guests and local creatives parade through.

The look was inspired by the Great Exhibition and carefully curated by interior design firm AvroKO … with input from a shaman to ensure the energy flow of the space around the cascading central staircase and glass-domed ceiling is positive, naturally.

The rooms at Six Senses London

The hotel’s 109 rooms and suites range from 325-square-foot Superior rooms to the 1,787-square-foot, two-bedroom Whiteley Suite, which also has an enormous private terrace running the length of the suite.

My Courtyard Suite on the eighth and top floor was a roomy 560 square feet with a light-filled living room and a spacious separate bedroom, both featuring views over the Whiteley development’s central courtyard the steel-casement windows (Six Senses residences, restaurants, shops and offices make up the rest of the city block-size project).

Inspired by nature as well as the building’s art deco elements, the decor included dark wooden furnishings and accents, blond wooden flooring and textiles in sky blue, sage and emerald, plus live plants, all creating a tranquil ambience.

The oversize emperor bed was dressed in crisp linens, plentiful pillows and an attractive coral-colored runner — the perfect place for getting over jet lag, even without the help of the hotel’s sleep doctor.

The bathroom, meanwhile, felt like a bright, airy spa unto itself thanks to glazed powder-blue tiling, an enormous circular soaking tub and a walk-in shower provisioned with Six Senses skin and hair products, including two different herb-laced shower gels, one to “pep up” and another to “chill out.”

Dining at Six Senses London

Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the hotel’s main restaurant is Whiteley’s Kitchen. Executive chef Eliano Crespi and head chef Jose Jara source the ingredients for their plant-forward menus from over 30 farms across the U.K. Even the sumptuous house-made pastries at the small breakfast buffet are baked with organic flour from nearby Shipton Mill.

You’ll also find specialties like avocado on sourdough toast with wood-fired mushrooms, tahini and Highland Blue smoked salmon on offer. The full breakfast menu including buffet and an a la carte dish is $65 per person.

At dinner, the fare incorporates everything from Sriracha-rubbed chicken wings stuffed with Dorset crab ($16) to New Forest asparagus with pickled mussels and watercress ($32). Don’t miss the tangy-sweet dessert of Marmite foam with sourdough crumble and malt ice cream ($16), which you can pair with a healthy, sleep-promot