Six Senses has opened within The Whiteley, the grand former department store on Queensway in Bayswater. It is the wellness brand’s first hotel anywhere in the United Kingdom. The address sits a short walk from Hyde Park and the colourful streets of Notting Hill, with plenty of London on the doorstep.
The hotel holds 109 rooms and suites, many with private terraces, alongside 14 branded residences. Glass rain showers, tall windows and warm timber sit against deep blues and soft Art Deco curves. At the top, the Whiteley Suite has a 125-square-metre roof terrace and the option to take an entire private floor.
The brand built its name on reconnecting people with themselves, with one another and with the world around them. That idea runs through every floor. British craftsmanship is the foundation, present in the structure of the building as much as its finish.
The interiors come from AvroKO working with EPR Architects. They kept the Grade II listed façade and its Art Deco heritage, while drawing on William Whiteley’s interest in the Great Exhibition of 1851, when industry and invention sat under one roof. That spirit carries through the building, with the old display vitrines now given over to plants.
The restored grand staircase is the centrepiece, once the defining feature of the original store. It was taken apart, lengthened and rebuilt by hand in Devon by Foster + Partners with The Hub. It now climbs three floors to a glass-domed ceiling.
“Six Senses London draws from the visual language of the Great Exhibition era, which often relied on black and white contrast. Rather than replicate that palette, we introduced deep greens into the lobby marble and architectural detailing, reframing the period through a natural lens. Vitrines remain, but plant life now occupies them. Transparency, from the staircase to the glass shower pods in the rooms, allows light to move freely through the building and shifts the emporium from spectacle to immersion.”
Adam Farmerie, Partner, AvroKO
Rest and Recover
The spa is the heart of the hotel. It covers 2,300 square metres and is built for both training and rest. It holds London’s first hotel magnesium pool, designed for muscle repair and a steadier nervous system, alongside a 20-metre indoor pool, a 325-square-metre fitness centre and studios for yoga and mindful movement.
Thirteen wellness spaces and six treatment rooms offer cryotherapy, flotation, red-light therapy, a traditional hammam and a sensory suite. The Biohack Recovery Lounge gathers the high-tech equipment in one place, with PEMF therapy, sound loungers, compression boots, lymphatic suits, electro muscle stimulation, vibration platforms and inversion tables.
A Wellness Centre handles the deeper work, with private consultations and screenings that cover biomarker analysis and lifestyle review. The results guide plans for sleep, metabolism, focus and stress. The Alchemy Bar, led by Charlotte Pulver, makes its own tinctures and tonics from foraged herbs, following the Anglo-Celtic calendar.
The first floor is home to HUM2N, the longevity clinic founded by Dr. Mohammed Enayat. It offers blood diagnostics, IV nutrient therapy and hormone optimisation. A hyperbaric chamber sits alongside it, simulating altitude to support recovery under clinical care.
British craft with maverick spirit
Wellness reaches the plate too, following the Eat With Six Senses principles built around seasonal, sustainably sourced ingredients in their simplest form. The kitchen reads this as maverick British cooking at Whiteley’s Kitchen, Bar and Café, picking up William Whiteley’s appetite for trying something new.
Executive Chef Eliano Crespi and Head Chef Jose Jara build vegetable-forward menus around preservation and fire-led cooking. A dedicated fermentation lab keeps house-made ferments and preserves in steady supply, from fruit to koji, adding flavour while cutting waste.
The bar treats alcohol as optional, with every drink designed to work with or without it. A signature serve, Clouds Over Islay, combines Bruichladdich whisky, amazake and a lemon hydrosol made in-house with the Alchemy Bar. The wine list backs British producers and independent growers, with a focus on terroir-driven bottles that match the kitchen’s seasonal approach.
Members’ club
Above the lobby sits the world’s first Six Senses Place, a social and wellness members’ club that gives the brand’s reconnection idea an urban home. It is built for switching off, with experiences that feel restorative rather than for show.
Programming follows the Almanac, planned across the year to align with seasonal shifts and cultural moments. Talks and shared meals explore self-development and reflective healing, giving members a reason to return well beyond the spa.
Growing the good
The Earth Lab, a fixture across all Six Senses properties, puts conservation to work through hands-on workshops in repurposing and botanical preparation, while 0.5 percent of total hotel revenue goes through the Regenerative Impact Fund to community-led environmental and social projects.
The hotel forms part of the BREEAM-certified redevelopment of The Whiteley and runs without single-use plastic, supported by rainwater harvesting, energy-efficient systems and more than 1,150 square metres of green roof for biodiversity and urban cooling. Rooftop planting strengthens pollinator habitats, reflected in the British butterfly the hotel has adopted as its mascot.
The block and beyond
The hotel is one part of a far bigger project. The Whiteley London is a mixed-use development of more than one million square feet, with 139 homes, over 60,000 square feet of amenities and a collection of 19 commercial brands across an entire city block. The reimagining was led by development managers Valouran with joint venture partners MARK and C C Land, and architecture by Foster + Partners, all part of the wider £3 billion regeneration of Queensway. The opening has created more than 300 new roles across hospitality, wellness and culinary work.