Artful Escapes: Six Senses London

Once one of London’s earliest and grandest department stores, The Whiteley has been revitalized as the U.K.’s first Six Senses. New York design studio AvroKO, in collaboration with EPR Architects, preserved the building’s stately design elements, such as its landmark façade and mesmerizing spiral stair—restored by Foster + Partners—which leads up to the world’s first Six Senses Place, a social and wellness members club. Artworks by a range of emerging British talents animate the public areas and restaurant, but it’s the lower-level spa that is the hotel’s pièce de résistance.

Here, a vast installation of “falling” white porcelain droplets by local ceramist Ula Saniawa floats above a reflecting pool. Access to the various treatment rooms is through a labyrinth of sandstone-colored tunnels culminating in the indoor magnesium swimming pool, the first of its kind in London.

A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2026 Summer Issue in the section “Artful Escapes.” Subscribe to the magazine.