The Landmark London spa review: An oasis of calm in a busy part of the capital

With its ornate Victorian red brick exterior and sun-drenched Winter Garden atrium dotted with towering palm trees, The Landmark London in the capital's Marylebone area wouldn't look amiss in Wes Anderson's film The Grand Budapest Hotel. Surprisingly, then, its newly refurbished spa and health club is a modern departure from the rest of the decor at hotel which first opened in 1899.

Following a revamp that took two months to complete, this relatively small section of the hotel’s lower floor features treatment rooms, a chlorine-free jacuzzi and 15m heated pool, gym, a steam room, sauna and a sanarium decorated in a neutral palette of stone, brown, white and copper. Think “generic spa". It's a colour scheme that creates tranquil, if not particularly imaginative, surroundings.


 The chlorine-free, 15m pool at The Landmark London 

So visitors shouldn’t come here to be dazzled by interior design - the rest of the hotel does that job well enough. Rather, the spa at The Landmark London offers a quiet place to unwind in a luxury hotel with an informal atmosphere a stones through away from Marylebone station. Guests are preened and pampered in treatment rooms large enough for one person, using products from skincare house Germaine de Capuccini in facials and body treatments that can last between 50 minutes to an entire day. And when your face is rested into a massage table and the smell of body oils rising from your skin is helping to melt away your stress, who really cares about cutting-edge design?

The treatment room at the hotel near Marleybone

The spa’s website explains that its treatments take a holistic approach, and the Mediterranean by Candlelight massage is an example of where this ethos comes into play.

First, guests are invited to choose a candle scent from olive, rosemary, lavender and citrus before hot Chakra stones are applied to pressure points across the body, including the temple, stomach, and back. Whether or not you believe in Chakras, this is a pleasant way to ease into the massage - particularly for those who feel a little uncomfortable in the awkward first few minutes of treatments. Warm wax is then poured onto the body and worked into the skin in a gentle but thorough and deeply relaxing massage. As the massage is faultless, it’s a shame that the rooms aren't entirely soundproof and the chatter of other clients can be heard from time to time. That post-massage high can be savoured by reclining in the dimly-lit relaxation room stocked with herbal tea and fresh fruits.