Photography: The Peninsula
In a very Belgravia take on wellness, London hotel The Peninsula has opened a set of wood-panelled treatment rooms and a mosaic-studded swimming pool.
Designed by architect and interior designer Peter Marino, the spa occupies two floors beneath the 190-room hotel – the Hong Kong hospitality group’s London flagship – which is located not far from the green space of Hyde Park and Green Park. Marino has drawn on this proximity as inspiration for its supremely peaceful interiors, using light and earthy materials to make guests feel at home.
Marino also sought guidance from a Feng Shui master to organise the two-floor urban spa, which features wood-wrapped treatment spaces. They sit beneath glowing ceilings, and the 25-m pool unfolds beneath a faux skylight that mimics the changing light of the day to take away any possible sense of being underground.
Guests swim to music, music piped through the pool’s underwater speaker system, afterwards, kicking back in a trio of semi-private cabanas. Marino also installed a nature-inspired mosaic, which wraps the upper section of the walls in the pool hall, depicting a mural of tree canopies – a riff on the backlit tree murals of the spa’s entrance.
The Peninsula’s Spa & Wellness Centre also has a sauna, steam room and ice fountain. At the same time, treatments include several UK firsts: high-tech facials supplied by Swiss pro-ageing brand Margy’s Monte Carlo and traditional Ayurvedic therapies provided by Australian aromatherapy brand Subtle Energies, which both debut in the capital. There are also microcurrent and gold facials, acupuncture, and lymphatic massage.
