Review – Inside The Lanesborough Club & Spa
Like the promise of sharing a bottle of Krug, the anticipation of this new London hotel spa has been delicious. The Lanesborough Club & Spa is the cherry on the cake of the hotel’s multi-million-pound redevelopment – a grande dame Regency property at Hyde Park Corner.
As you come through the hotel’s entrance, you feel like Alice chasing the White Rabbit through endless corridors to find the spa. The Spa Club members, however, know the discrete street-level spiral staircase leading to an unmarked black door.
Inside it’s all a spacious 1,672 sq metres of loveliness, with nods to art deco glamour, furnishings in claret, plum, blush pink, mother-of-pearl, silk, leather, glass, crystals and mirrors. There’s a ‘gentlemen’s club’ feel to the chill out room (fireplace, paintings, leather chairs) and the spa dining room is a sumptuous forest of greens, serving up healthy smoothies as part of its all-day menu.
Despite the space, however, the spa has no lap pool; an enormous hydropool takes its place with a cascading wall of water and bubbles at the press of a button so fine it’s like bathing in the mousse of that bottle of Krug. My favourite thing to do was step out of the sauna and into the cold mist shower, deliciously invigorating without any clenching of teeth.
Fans of ila will find the ‘beyond organic’ brand has a natural home here. My deep-tissue Potali massage used lemongrass and rose marie argan oil blends and poultice tapping to release energy flow. I relaxed into the whole experience and took unhurried time in the lounge and spa afterwards much longer than I’d planned.