Capsule lodges are an inexpensive various to costly accomodation in London for workplace employees.
Sawdah Bhaimiya
Employees who moved out of London for distant work are underneath strain to return again to the workplace within the metropolis, and a few are selecting to remain in Japanese-inspired sleeping pods for simply £30 ($40).
I travelled to Piccadilly Circus within the coronary heart of London to spend an evening in a newly opened capsule resort, after two of my colleagues who stay exterior the town beneficial staying there.
Zedwell Capsule Lodge, a model owned by Criterion Capital, opened in September and provides almost 1,000 capsules measuring 1 meter lengthy, 1 meter extensive, and a couple of meters in depth — possible the smallest resort rooms in London.
It has a somewhat unassuming exterior regardless of being situated contained in the historic London Pavilion constructing — initially constructed as a music corridor in 1885. The doorway is across the nook of the busy station, by means of some black doorways.
Non-public sleeping capsules alongside one another in Zedwell Capsule Lodge in London.
Sawdah Bhaimiya
The price of staying in a resort in Central London is staggering, sitting at a mean of £265 per night time within the third quarter of 2025, in line with actual property agency Knight Frank. Compared, the common day by day fee of lodges throughout Europe was 125 euros in the summertime, in line with an evaluation of over 600,000 reservations from 2,000 impartial lodges by RoomRaccoon.
Criterion’s Head of Resorts Halima Aziz informed me that the capsule resort addresses a niche out there between funds hostels and reasonably priced lodging.
“We have shaped this candy spot between the 2. We’re not a funds hostel. We’re not coming in at a £15 fee, providing you with a bunk mattress in a metal room,” she stated.
“After we determined to get into capsules, we actually took inspiration from Asia, and the capsule idea was actually born out of Japan as a response to very comparable pressures we’re going through in London.”
In Japan, the primary capsule resort was constructed within the metropolis of Osaka in 1979, primarily to function a reasonable in a single day possibility for salarymen who labored late and most well-liked to remain out consuming and socializing somewhat than spending more cash commuting dwelling.
It is given rise to some capsule-style lodges in New York, from sleeping pods by Kama Central Park, to Nap York, a sleeping station with personal pods for brief naps or in a single day stays.
Now that the idea has come to London, I used to be eager to see for myself what the British model has to supply.
Inside a sleeping capsule
Inside a sleeping capsule in Zedwell Capsule Lodge in London.
Sawdah Bhaimiya
It is a Monday night, and as a substitute of my standard work-from-home routine, which entails getting ready to enter the workplace the subsequent day, I am crawling right into a brightly lit sleeping pod.
I roll down the garage-like shutters and lock it from the within as I put together to sleep. My head is simply inches beneath the ceiling of my pod, which has a light-weight dimmer, two clothes hooks, an air air purifier, a large mirror stretching alongside the top of the capsule, and charger sockets.
Though I can really feel my baggage — a backpack and tote bag — on the finish of my mattress, and the underside of my coat held on the hooks, I am stunned by how snug and comfortable the bedding is.
I change off the lights and noisy air air purifier and discover myself enveloped by pitch black and silence. It feels eerie, however with nothing to distract me, I go to sleep rapidly.
Every capsule measures 1 meter lengthy, 1 meter extensive, and a couple of meters in depth.
Sawdah Bhaimiya
Earlier within the day, I checked myself into the resort utilizing one among 4 kiosks, and as I roamed across the resort, I seen that the partitions had been painted black to match the outside — and there is not a single window in sight.
I rode as much as the primary ground and used a key card to entry my female-only dormitory. My capsule was one among seven stacked aspect by aspect or on high of one another, and a few had been solely accessible through steps.
A female-only dormitory inside Zedwell Capsule Lodge.
Sawdah Bhaimiya
I discovered that regardless of the low preliminary value, there was a sequence of extra facilities visitors pays for, from an additional £10 to be in a female-only dormitory, to £8 for a padlock, and £15 to retailer baggage securely.
The resort had an unfinished really feel. The doorway was coated in scaffolding and the faint sound of drilling might be heard from contained in the constructing.
That is as a result of it’s “nonetheless underneath development,” Zedwell’s Normal Supervisor Greg Walsh informed me. The drilling sounds had been coming from underground the place a bigger reception was being constructed, with direct hyperlinks to Piccadilly Circus Station.
CEO Aziz confirmed that the constructing is just not full, including that the extra value for the feminine dorms was largely as a consequence of upgraded facilities, together with a towel contained in the pod and a female-only magnificence room full with hairdryers — though that is nonetheless underneath development and never presently accessible.
“In the end, when you’re not simply focusing on the normal hostel market, and also you wish to widen entry, it’s essential reply to individuals’s wants, and folks have wants for laundry, for magnificence, that would not usually be thought of,” she added.
Whereas exploring the constructing, I discovered shared bathrooms and showers with classical music enjoying inside, in addition to merchandising machines within the reception with snacks, drinks, slippers and eye masks amongst different gadgets.
I wandered out for dinner and with Oxford Circus, Leicester Sq., and Covent Backyard inside strolling distance, it wasn’t arduous to entertain myself.
Zedwell Capsule Lodge is situated in Piccadilly Circus, London.
Sawdah Bhaimiya
Employees are coming again to the town
Throughout my time within the resort, I found I used to be one among many working professionals within the constructing. I noticed a number of visitors arriving in fits and ties and carrying briefcases. One chef from Newcastle even informed me he paid a complete of £284 to remain within the resort for a fortnight to work in London.
In the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, many workplace employees in London moved out of the town, the place it was cheaper to hire or personal a house, as a consequence of distant and versatile working choices changing into a normality.
“The price of commuting from Oxford, Cambridge, metropolis facilities that are not accessible through the London Underground system, is sort of excessive.”
Halima Aziz
Criterion’s Head of Resorts
A 2021 report from Metropolis Corridor stated it was possible that London’s inhabitants fell through the pandemic. The variety of payrolled London workers dropped sharply by about 210,000 by November 2020, with the report citing that versatile work preparations made it simpler to maneuver out of the town.
The development continued, and by 2022, 43% of commuters lived over half-hour away from their office within the U.Okay., reflecting greater property costs in central areas, in line with a report by business actual property agency CBRE which surveyed over 20,000 individuals globally.
Moreover, CBRE discovered that 41% of individuals worldwide had been planning to maneuver to extra distant places within the subsequent two years both in the identical metropolis or to a special metropolis.
Nonetheless, in 2025, there’s been a pointy recall in distant work choices with main firms imposing return to workplace mandates in London from HSBC to JPMorgan, Amazon, Salesforce and John Lewis.
A usually dormitory with roughly a dozen capsules inside Zedwell Capsule Lodge.
Sawdah Bhaimiya
Zedwell’s Aziz stated one of many resort’s core demographics is younger professionals and hybrid employees who’re utilizing Zedwell as a “base within the metropolis” as a consequence of their versatile working patterns which require them to be within the workplace for just a few days every week. Roughly 20% of the resort’s prospects are company employees, Aziz stated.
“The price of commuting from Oxford, Cambridge, metropolis facilities that are not accessible through the London Underground system, is sort of excessive,” she stated. “Our product is usually cheaper than their commute or late-night journey dwelling.”
The return-to-office mandate has left employees who do not stay in cities scrambling to search out cheap methods of staying within the metropolis, with out having to resort to unattractive choices like hostels.
“The place they would not historically contemplate a hostel product, we recognized that they’d certainly contemplate a capsule resort, as a result of it gave that privateness,” Aziz added.
As a Londoner, my standard commute to the workplace lasts simply over half-hour, so the resort does not supply a lot by way of comfort for me, however I can see the attraction for these residing additional away from the town.
Once I awoke within the morning, I virtually forgot that I wasn’t in my mattress at dwelling. After a fast bathe, I obtained prepared inside my capsule earlier than heading out and becoming a member of the throng of commuters in central London.
