This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s guide to London
When booking a hotel, my first question is always: does it have a pool? If so, how long is it?
To me, there is nothing more luxurious than padding out of your room in swimwear, robe and slippers, goggles in hand, for a refreshing dip. I will even set my alarm an hour early — no matter how jet-lagged I am — to fit in a swim before I venture anywhere near the breakfast buffet. Having pounded up and down a pool for 20 minutes, anything that comes afterwards is entirely merited.
I like a rooftop pool (who doesn’t?) but I would still choose length over location every time (most of London’s longest hotel pools are subterranean, as top-floor real estate is given over to penthouses and cocktail bars). Length matters: I am a keen lapper but no tumble-turner so anything less than 20-metres is not worth the chlorine.
With the arrival of a host of £1k-plus per night uber-luxe hotels, the capital’s hotel pool scene has seriously upped its game in the past couple of years. And with such a weighty pricetag, guests should expect a showstopper of a pool to match — long and wide, heated just to the right temperature, with at the very least a vitality pool, and lots of complimentary fruit and iced water.
The below hotel pools — some of them new, some not so new — are all at least 20 metres long, and in most cases meet my criteria. Access is generally for guests only, unless in the case of some you have a membership or you purchase a spa treatment which often needs to be at least 90 minutes or above a certain price point. This, to me, is the most spoiling gift anyone can offer: a few hours to oneself, lapping in luxury. Go early, swim, sauna, steam and submit.
Guerlain Spa at Raffles London at The OWO
57 Whitehall, London SW1A 2BX
Good for: High-ceilinged luxury
Not so good for: Non-guests
FYI: The pool and spa facilities are for hotel guests and wellness club members only — unless you book a 90-minute spa treatment
Size: 20m x 8m
Temperature: 29C
Website; Directions
London’s top hotel pools can often be dark and claustrophobic, making you all the more conscious of being below traffic level, which they almost inevitably are. Not so on floor minus four of Raffles London at The OWO, where double-height ceilings and vast travertine columns create a luxurious airy chamber around the transcendently beautiful 20m x 8m pool.
This vast historic civic building squat in the middle of Whitehall, which housed Winston Churchill’s office during the second world war, opened as a Raffles hotel after much delay and fanfare in 2023. The lower floors of the OWO — once the lair of Special Operations Executive, the precursor to MI5/6 — are now partly given over to the four-floor 27,000 sq ft Guerlain spa.
Accessed through the spa entrance on floor-3 and down a sweeping staircase, the pool is lined by plush loungers dotted with water stations stocked with jugs of iced lemon and mint water. Pool butlers pad quietly around, replacing towels and enquiring if you require a pressed juice or a “veg-centric” dish from a small, curated menu featuring virtuous items such as “Probiotic Waldorf” and “Chalkstream Trout Crudo”.
After a dip, you can flop into the large vitality pool with its various submerged benches and seats and be pummelled by massage jets, before slinking off to the sauna and gorgeous Patagonia mosaic-tiled steam room. Make time to hang out in the boudoir-style changing rooms, with — for female spa-users — curved leather banquettes and dressing tables equipped with sundry OWO products.
Surrenne at The Emory
Old Barrack Yard, London SW1X 7NP
Good for: Its celestial vibe and the snow shower
Not so good for: Those who like to swim in cooler water
FYI: No poolside snacks beyond juices and protein balls — you won’t find a club sandwich here
Size: 22m x 7m
Temperature: 30C
Website; Directions
The Emory, a 61-suite hotel bang in the middle of Knightsbridge and overlooking Hyde Park, is one of a host of £1,000-plus per night properties to have recently opened in the capital. A new addition to the venerable Maybourne group (Claridge’s, The Connaught, The Berkeley), The Emory is by contrast a hyper-modern glass and steel structure, a ground-up build designed by the late Richard Rogers and RSHP architects.
Surrenne, the hotel’s 2,000 sq m spa, is accessible only to guests and private members. The pool and spa area has a distinctly otherworldly celestial feel and it is hard to put your finger on why, other than it is one of the most supremely relaxing spaces I have ever been to. Although subterranean — I couldn’t tell you which floor as I was ushered up and down the spa’s rather heavenly central staircase several times — there is a skylight overhead, illuminating the gold-leaf ceiling and glass mosaic of the pool below.
Curtained off, wood-lined cabanas around the side of the pool are the size of a standard Parisian hotel room. Lounging on one of the double beds, listening to the plinky-plonky music and wearing the kimono provided in the changing rooms, I fell quickly into a near trance and nearly forgot to swim. And when I did finally force myself, the water was so warm that I failed to clock up any lengths whatsoever.
Round the corner, however, is an experience that will jolt you awake within seconds — a magical snow shower, in which you stand while manufactured snowflakes are puffed out over you. This is a perfect sharpener for the adjacent sauna, from where, if you half shut your eyes, you can even watch the snow falling and imagine you are in Gstaad.
The Peninsula London
1 Grosvenor Pl, London SW1X 7HJ
Good for: Having a proper swim, possibly even by yourself
Not so good for: The wallet-conscious
FYI: The pool is for guests only, unless you book a 90-minute treatment
Size: 25m x 7m
Temperature: 28C
Website; Directions
It is hard to believe that metres below Hyde Park Corner lies an exclusive sanctuary that gives no hint of the chaos above ground. The Peninsula’s 1,300 sq m spa and wellness centre on floors minus three and four must be somewhere around the same level as the Piccadilly line, thundering on to Knightsbridge, although lying next to the expansive jade-tiled pool, you would never know it.
This first London branch of the Peninsula group is a £1bn newbuild that was unveiled in 2023, joining the gang above at the eye-watering £1,000-plus per night price tag. At this level, surely nothing less than 20 metres will do — and, at 25 metres, architect/designer Peter Marino has created a pool that does not disappoint. With subtly changing light panels above high latticed-wood ceilings, there is a sense of calm, but also a nod to the hotel’s group’s East Asian origins. Abstract mosaic murals vaguely suggest waves, and relaxing non-invasive music is piped even underwater. Nuts, raisins and fruit are provided poolside, as well as a light yet wallet-challenging menu.
The changing rooms are glossy and cosseting, with a sauna and steam, as well as dressing tables with Peninsula products and Dyson driers. Swim first before a signature massage in one of the seven spacious treatment rooms — Nepalese therapist Ipsha will soon iron out all the kinks.
The Mandarin Oriental Mayfair
22 Hanover Square, London W1S 1JP
Good for: a glorious phosphorescent swim
Not so good for: poolside grazing
FYI: The pool is for guests only, unless you book a 90-minute treatment and even then you can only use the pool for one hour before
Size: 25m x ??
Temperature: 28C
Website; Directions
“Nine out of ten times you will have the pool to yourself,” the spa manager told me when I arrived on floor minus 1. It was a glorious warm day, and descending to the brand new Mandarin Oriental Mayfair’s spa felt a bit counter-intuitive, but I was quickly seduced by on-arrival ritual of a cool towel and a mini hibiscus tea. The pool is only available to guests, and for a brief hour for any spa visitors who have booked a 90-min treatment or more. There is also an upper limit of 10 spa club members, so this is about as exclusive as it comes.
Designed by Tokyo-based design studios, Curiosity, the spa features glass wall lights, dispersed along the dark corridors to look like fireflies, gathering to a swarm in the pool area. This lends a magical ambience to this glorious swimming experience which feels, at one end, like stepping into a watery cave with tiny sparkling mosaics gradating from dark to light towards the other. Coupled with underwater lights that somehow create a bubbly phosphorescence, I felt quite transported — that is, until a hotel guest interrupted my swim by deigning to join me.
A series of three individual vitality pools plus a poolside steam and sauna room complete the watery reset, before flopping on one of the eight loungers. There is no poolside menu, but you are welcome to sip hibiscus tea or munch on nuts and dried apricots from the treatment waiting area.
Luxuriate in Natura Bisse products in the beautiful, zen changing rooms, with veiny green marble sinks that look like leaves under a microscope and glossy dark green cabinets.
The Park Hyatt London River Thames
Good for: a proper swim bathed in sunlight
Not so good for: Nine Elms may not be top of your London itinerary
FYI: Make sure you distinguish the male and female saunas
Length: 20m
Temperature: 29C
“Have you heard about the pool at the new Park Hyatt in Nine Elms?” a well-travelled friend asked me. I had not. I had never even been to Nine Elms, a forest of tower blocks next to the Thames with its own newish Northern Line tube stop, just a short walk from Battersea Power Station.
I fully expected the lift at the spanking new Park Hyatt London River Thames, a sparkling addition to the Nine Elms skyline, to plunge down into the bowels of the building to reach the hotel’s spa — so it was refreshing when it surged upwards. The airy wellness centre is on the first floor, with fantastic views, high ceilings, treatment rooms and a Technogym.
Bathed in sunlight, the 20m x 8m raised pool is surrounded by loungers, equipped with towels and tetra packs of water. While I was lapping, I eyed the US Embassy down the road, its crystalline facade glinting in the morning sun. Both male and female changing areas have saunas — as I discovered by misinterpreting the sign on the door.
The Ned
27 Poultry, London EC2R 8AJ
Good for: The best swim in the City
Not so good for: In warm weather, the 10m rooftop pool is not for swimming; it is for Instagram posing only
FYI: You either need to be a hotel guest or a member of the exclusive Ned’s Club to use the indoor pool. (The rooftop pool is for Ned’s Club members only.) You don’t need to book a time slot but capacity will be monitored
Length: 20m
Temperature: 29C
Slap in the middle of the City, in the former Midland Bank HQ, is the enormous Ned hotel and club, which opened in the peak post-Brexit-referendum gloom of 2017 and could have been a £200mn disaster for its new proprietors, Soho House. But it is now a fixture for a City core who flock there for espresso martinis, marbled interiors and its eight smart restaurants. Since it opened, Neds have popped up in New York, DC and Doha.
The members-only rooftop pool can be busy (in normal times, it is often heaving with Aperol-spritz-swilling post-work revellers). The 20m indoor pool on floor minus 2 is, however, extremely quiet.
Housed in a marble chamber, the pool — like all the best London hotel pools — is lined with tiny mosaic tiles (a tradition that surely springs from London’s actual best pool, at the Royal Automobile Club, a private members’ club in St James’s). A series of poolside antechambers includes a spacious Moroccan hammam, a steam room and sauna. You can even pop round to Ned’s Parlour, an in-house salon, for a quick blow-dry before you go up a floor for drinks in The Vault, a cocktail lounge surrounded by 3,000 original safety-deposit boxes.
Go up one more floor and you’ll find yourself in the forecourt, in a fix, trying to choose between Asian-Pacific, Italian, Californian, steak/grill, English or New York diner fare. (Website; Directions)
Bvlgari Hotel
171 Knightsbridge, London SW7 1DW
Good for: The gold-leaf-tiled vitality pool; the extra-padded slippers
Not so good for: Those craving daylight, or those on a budget
FYI: You either need to be a hotel guest, a spa member (overseas memberships are available) or book in for a treatment of at least £250 in value
Length: 25m
Temperature: 28C
Is this the best hotel pool in London? Probably. At 25m long and 7m wide, and tiled with bluish-green and gold-flecked mosaics, it is certainly the most opulent. And although it is situated five floors underground — and not on a beach in Turkey — once ensconced in one of the private cabanas, with billowing white curtains and a buzzer for poolside service, you could kid yourself for a moment.
Even on my visit, there were only two other people lounging — a Japanese woman snoozing in sunglasses and a German man talking quietly on his phone (the WiFi works perfectly), contemplating a plate of grilled prawns. It is doubtless even quieter now. There are plenty of nice touches: bottled water and peelable fruit are provided poolside.
After a swim, you can plop into the adjacent vitality pool, which is no ordinary Jacuzzi. The floor-to-ceiling mosaics are made from gold-leafed glass, so the walls shimmer and the bubbling water sparkles like champagne. Each button offers a different type of aqua massage, including a gentle pummelling on an underwater lounger and a powerful shoulder massage from a waterfall.
Upstairs, there is a sauna and a fountain full of slushy ice that you are encouraged to rub over your body for a proper Scandi frisson. For more icy kicks, the cryotherapy facial, designed to revive tired, jet-lagged skin, is popular with guests from overseas.
This is evidently not the place for a quick dip — so try to book in when you have some time to work with; you are unlikely to want to hurry out. (Website; Directions)
Which of London’s hotel pools is your favourite? Tell us in the comments
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