The wellness industry in London has found its feet—its soft, beautiful, callus-free feet—with a host of entrepreneurial women taking the lead. Experts like nutritional therapist Amelia Freer, meditation guru Vanessa Kandiyoti, and spiralizing queens Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley are writing books, hosting workshops, and opening businesses faster than you can say “turmeric latte and acai bowl, please.” And there are new collaborative havens dedicated to wellness, including the Bamford Haybarn Spa in Brompton Cross, Bodyism in Notting Hill, and Yogarise in South London, that are also springing up across town.
We spend a lot of time in the UK capital these days, thanks to our well-being mecca—the now-permanent London goop store. We’ve compiled a comprehensive wellness black book for your next visit, whether you’re looking for a medical-grade facial or the chicest cryotherapy chambers in Europe or just craving a perfect smoothie and a plate of organic veggies. London, in other words, is Southern California with a lilt.
Restaurants
Andina
Neighborhood: Shoreditch
Best for: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Price: $
Highlights: Good for kids, takes reservations
The first of its kind in London, Andina offers up the concept of Andean picanterias—casual, family-run community restaurants. Serving up fresh juices and smoothies, a variety of ceviches, quinoa burgers, and the like, it’s one of our go-to’s for a healthy, well-priced meal in Shoreditch.
26 Grains
Neighborhood: Covent Garden
Best for: Breakfast & Lunch
Price: $$
It can be surprisingly hard to find a healthy breakfast or lunch to go in London, which is why places like 26 Grains are a godsend. The concept is pretty simple—choose a grain (of which there are twenty-six, duh), a few spices, and a couple of toppings, and you are good to go. Plus, you sit for a meal at the communal table, which is a lovely experience, complete with beautiful, handmade ceramic dishes. At breakfast, you’ll find porridge and bircher muesli, and at lunch, it’s more like quinoa, rice, and the like. Don’t miss the turmeric almond milk latte.
Good Life Eatery
Neighborhood: Chelsea
Best for: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Price: $
Green juices, superfood salads, acai bowls, and the like are the health-infused, light, protein-packed goodies offered at this all-day café. The concept improved by the fact that if you go to the café (and manage to snag a spot), it’s Wi-Fi-free and meant for “real” conversation or reading, though if you’d rather take away, you can also have it delivered. This location is the original—thanks to massive lines, a second location has opened in Belgravia—but with better-quality food in such high demand, it’s bound to keep growing.
Spas & Health Centers
Bamford Haybarn Spa
Neighborhood: Chelsea
Price: $$$
Carole Bamford’s latest London enterprise, the Bamford Haybarn Spa, is fast becoming our wellness home away from home in London. Tucked away on Draycott Avenue in Chelsea, the building looks like something straight off of Bamford’s own Gloucestershire farm, with its rustic white wood and signature green glass bottles full of nontoxic botanical oils, creams, and serums. Inside, you find wellness temple with a subterranean spa and first-floor space offering yoga, Pilates, meditation, and fascinating workshops with holistic experts (like crystal healing and sound baths). The “sleep” treatment is our go-to after a long flight or a bout of insomnia. Each session starts with submerging your weary feet in Epsom-salted water while you pick your oil of choice and the music you want to drift off to. One hour is all you need to feel thoroughly depuffed and ready for bed. If you want dinner first, Daylesford Organic is blessedly around the corner, for vibrant, straight-off-the-farm food (straight off Bamford’s farm, that is).
Bodyism
Neighborhood: Notting Hill
Price: $$$
The positive affirmations emblazoned on the windows catch your eye first. Then the fluttering pieces of paper taped to the doorframe with words like “gratitude,” “love,” and “forgiveness” (pull off what you need—the equivalent of a wellness fortune cookie, without the cookie) lure you in. Through the Aussie-style café (a fantastic spot for a turmeric latte or to plow through emails), down the stairs is Bodyism, a wellness-mecca-meets-private-members’-club. Unlike other private gyms, there isn’t a treadmill in sight; instead, Bodyism is focused on personal training and classes, teaching clients to be kind to themselves with a more low-impact routine than the often punishing cardio regimes found elsewhere. The ballet, yoga, Pilates, and boxing are taught—for the most part—by former athletes, and everyone here remembers your name.
Cloud Twelve
Neighborhood: Notting Hill
Price: $$
Highlights: Great for Families
This place is incredible for parents. The idea is that of a members’ club, but for families. The kids take over the ground floor (with supervised activities, soft play, and a plant-based café to feed them), while the grown-ups have their spa-restaurant-tearoom oasis upstairs. The top level is the treatment sanctuary with acupuncture, colonics, a nutritionist, and cryotherapy chambers at the ready. Refreshingly, membership is nonexclusive. Anyone can join (for a yearly fee), and having children is not a prerequisite.
Shops
Goop
Neighborhood: Notting Hill
Price: $$$
London finally gets a dose of goop. We’ve opened our very own Notting Hill store in the city where it all began ten years ago (at GP’s kitchen table). Designed by Fran Hickman, this is one of our most significant retail ventures yet: four floors, flooded with natural light, complete with olive trees and wildflowers. Start at the bottom—a blue velvet boudoir filled with an array of G. Sport apparel, supplements, and other super functional and great-looking workout gear. Climb a few steps and enter the world of goop home (and the gorgeousness that is the goop x CB2 collaboration) with doors opening onto an ivy-covered, stone-walled garden. Up one more flight, you’ll find a London-specific edit of G. Label, Stella McCartney, Co, and more. Finally, the top floor is a wonderland of clean, nontoxic beauty products with custom vanities where you can chill out and try everything before you buy.
Daylesford
Neighborhood: Notting Hill
Price: $$
With four London locations in addition to their Gloucestershire farm, Daylesford Organic’s farm shops—they’re also home to small cafés perfect to work or read from—are a great place to get a real taste of the English countryside. You can pop in to buy the local, organic, and humanely raised groceries, or stick around to try their straightforward (but stellar) menu. Their Gloucestershire farm, home to the largest and most elaborate of their farm shops, is well worth the trip if you have the time (you can also spend the night). There are also locations in Marylebone and Pimlico.
Content
Neighborhood: Marylebone
Price: $$$
This Marylebone hole-in-the-wall is a windfall, importing many of our favorite nontoxic brands. From Intelligent Nutrients and Tata Harper for skincare to RMS, Vapour, and Kjaer Weis for makeup, it’s our new go-to in London for beauty. Plus, the shopgirls are as well-versed in natural ingredients as they are in good old-fashioned makeup tips.
