HOTEL SPA MAGALI ROBATHAN » JOURNALIST » SPA BUSINESS
It is estimated that around 75 per cent of the guests at the 29-bedroom Lime Wood country house hotel will use the new Herb House spa in some capacity. It is hoped that the new £7.5m facility will drive bookings for the hotel, especially during the off season and in the week
FOREST RETREAT
THE UK FIVE-STAR COUNTRY HOUSE HOTEL LIME WOOD HAS JUST OPENED ITS HERB HOUSE SPA. WE FIND OUT WHAT IT’S EXPECTED TO BRING TO THE HOTEL
attention. From hosting Jamie Cullum and Sophie Dahl’s wedding to winning awards for interior design and appearing in Conde Nast Traveller’s Hot List 2010, it has been noticed for all the right reasons. Up until recently, though, something was missing. Tat something was a spa, which opened
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in the shape of Herb House in November 2010. A destination spa was always part of the plan for Lime Wood, but in 2009 the spa plans were put on hold to allow the team to concentrate on finishing the hotel and to give them time to really think about what kind of facility they wanted to create. “Te spa market is competitive and I didn’t want ours to just be another hotel spa,” says
HOW IT TOOK SHAPE
The Lime Wood story began in 1999, when Jim Ratcliffe – owner and chair of the Ineos chemicals group, the UK’s larg- est privately owned company – teamed up with Hampshire chef Alex Aitken and bought what was then the Parkhill hotel. In 2004, Ratcliffe and Aitken closed Parkhill and embarked on a five-year, £30m (us$48.4m, €35.2m) renovation to
transform it into one of the best coun- try house hotels in the UK. Te original Regency building was almost entirely rebuilt. In 2008, Ratcliffe approached Hotel du Vin founder Robin Hutson to help oversee the project. Hutson had sold Hotel du Vin in 2004; he then worked as chair for the Soho House Group, before it was sold to Richard Caring in 2008.
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ince opening in November 2009, the five-star, 29 -bedroom Lime Wood country house hotel in the New Forest region, south England, has attracted much
Robin Hutson, chair of the Lime Wood Group, a small collection of luxury hotels, restaurants and chalets in Europe. “I wanted to create something destination-worthy.” Aſter considering various different con-
cepts, Hutson and his team decided that the spa should take its inspiration from the beautiful New Forest surroundings. “We thought it important to create some-
thing British that was as natural and organic as possible in both the design and the treat- ment offer,” says Hutson. “We decided to create a herb-covered roof garden on top of the spa, and Herb House was born.”
HERB HOUSE
Te spa is spread over three levels and has 10 treatment rooms, a 16m ozone-treated indoor pool with retracting doors to the gar- den, a hydrotherapy pool, a rooſtop gym, a mud house, a caldarium, a steamroom
and a sauna, as well as a room for mani- cures and pedicures. Te pools are by Barr + Wray, the thermal experiences by Klafs. Te equipment in the gym has been supplied by Technogym and Trixter. Te treatment rooms include two signa-
ture couple’s rooms: Te Bath House, with an indoor double bath and a steamroom; and Te Bath Garden, with a steamroom and a private garden featuring a double bath. Te Herbery roof garden boasts a selection of fresh herbs, which are used in both the treatments and the food on offer at the spa’s café. It will also be used for outdoor yoga, t’ai chi and meditation classes, evening bar- becues and parties. Te original design was by top interior
designer David Collins but was tweaked by the in-house design team at Lime Wood, and the fit out cost £7.5m (us$12m, €8.8m). In keeping with the ethos that it should fit in with its surroundings, natural mate- rials including slate and wood have been used extensively, and herb-filled planters are dotted throughout the building. Enor- mous windows provide views of the forest and allow masses of natural light into the pools, sauna and café, while pale greens and creams create a warm, uncluttered feel. Herb House also features Te Raw Bar, a
café serving smoothies and champagne, as well as salads and raw and cured meats and fish. “In spas the food offering is oſten a bit of an aſterthought,” says Hutson. “We wanted this to be a strong offer in its own right.
SPA BUSINESS 1 2011 ©Cybertrek 2011
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