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-promoting tea.

During the day, there’s a small cafe counter adjacent to the kitchen from which you can order pastries and small-batch coffee.

Come evening, though, Whiteley’s Bar is the place to be. Snag a tufted yellow barstool at the marble-topped bar and taste your way through creative cocktails that include an old fashioned-like Gentle Staf with The Macallan Double Cask 12-year-old whisky, cocoa bitters and bay leaf ($30); or an incredibly bright red nonalcoholic seasonal sour with beets and berries ($19). In a nod to changing tastes and trends, each cocktail on the list can be made either with or without alcohol. There are also a fair few British wines on offer, should you like to try the local specialties.

Upstairs, as part of the Six Senses Place member’s club, there is another restaurant called Place, with a menu that skews mostly Mediterranean and vegetarian, with signature dishes like charred boniato sweet yam with zaatar, pistachio and coconut ($24.50), luscious tuna tataki with sesame dressing and crispy shallots ($30) and rich whipped salted cod served with fluffy brioche and puffed British quinoa for crunch ($18).

The Spa at Six Senses London

Now we get to it: The real reason for booking a respite at this health-minded hotel — and likely the draw for Londoners looking to start a bespoke wellness journey.

The hotel’s main wellness complex spans nearly 25,000 square feet and comprises a gym equipped with up-to-the-minute machines alongside yoga and movement studios.

The Biohack Recovery Lounge has Therabody zero-gravity chairs wherein you can get your blood pumping with compression boots, or zone out with a red-light therapy mask. The hotel’s 66-foot swimming pool was not yet open during my stay, but it should be another standout feature.

There are also 13 wellness spaces and six treatment rooms where spagoers can delve into myriad experiences ranging from cryotherapy to healing heated quartz beds, a marble hammam, flotation sensory deprivation pods, sound healing and even London’s first hotel magnesium pool (it supposedly supports muscular recovery). There are also more conventional massages and facials on offer, which incorporate world-class Dr. Burgener and de Mamiel skincare products and techniques.

For something a little more tailored, book a wellness consultation with one of the hotel’s biohacking experts, and you can have all manner of metabolic readings taken to help you improve your physical and mental well-being (45 minutes; $200)

On the more holistic side, pay a visit to the hotel’s head alchemist, Charlotte Pulver, at the Earth Lab, a gorgeous space resembling a Victorian greenhouse, with copper stills, apothecary jars filled with locally foraged herbs and a meadow’s worth of dried flowers hanging overhead. After an hourlong consultation session, she will help you distill and blend your own tinctures and tonics to soothe what ails you (60 minutes; $265).

Up on the hotel’s second floor, you’ll find a HUM2N longevity clinic with offerings like IV therapy, blood diagnostics and a hyperbaric chamber, among other services.

Amenities and service

• Service is personable, friendly and polished. Spa therapists are happy to delve into the merits of various skincare brands while restaurant waitstaff are there to tell you the provenance of each and every morsel you enjoy, all with a cheerful flourish.
• As you might expect from such a wellness-focused hotel, the fitness center is huge and has a vast array of Technogym, LifeFitness and Peloton equipment plus movement and yoga studios.
• Guests can join a variety of complimentary activities, including everything from HIIT classes to sound-healing sessions, DIY sustainability projects and yoga and Pilates workouts.
• Don’t forget to duck into the bolthole of a boutique near the reception desks, where you can peruse everything from one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces to sunglasses, apparel and tiny terrariums.
• The Six Senses London is also home to the brand’s inaugural member’s club, Six Senses Place, whose facilities and amenities sit on the second floor and include a variety of wellness and other enrichment programming.

Six Senses London location

Six Senses London is located in the West London neighborhood of Bayswater, near other popular areas like Notting Hill and Kensington. It’s a short walk to the Bayswater Tube station on the Circle and District lines as well as Queensway on the Central line.

From London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR), you can take the Heathrow Express Train or the Elizabeth line of the Tube to Paddington Station, which is about a 15-minute walk. Alternatively, Ubers to or from the airport cost around $60-$90 depending on the time of day.

Booking Six Senses London

Rates at the Six Senses London start at $1,021 or 180,000 IHG One Rewards points per night for a Superior Room. The Courtyard Suite I stayed in starts at around $2,900 per night.

Since Six Senses is part of IHG One Rewards, you might want to consider booking with one of the credit cards that earn the most points for IHG stays, as well as one that possibly offers automatic IHG One Rewards elite status for value-added benefits. These include:

The hotel is also part of American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts, so if you have the American Express Platinum Card® or The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, you can make a booking through American Express Travel® and receive perks like availability-based upgrades, up to a $100 credit to use on-property during your stay for things like drinks or meals, complimentary daily breakfast for two and guaranteed 4 p.m. late checkout.

Accessibility at Six Senses London

Public areas of the Six Senses London have step-free entrances and are accessible by elevator, while doors to some spaces, including parts of the wellness complex, open automatically with the wave of a hand.

The hotel offers wheelchair-accessible accommodations in a handful of categories, though to ensure a room meets your requirements, it’s best to call the hotel and book directly.

Bottom line

Six Senses London is an alluring new addition to the city’s already teeming luxury hotel scene. Among the elements that set it apart, however, are its world-class wellness facilities and its location away from some of the capital’s more touristed districts. It’s likely to draw both Londoners and international visitors alike for salubrious sojourns in the heart of the city.

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