12 hours ago
4
Francesca Syz
November 17, 2025 — 5:00am
You know that anxiety dream where you get trapped in one of those refrigerated body drawers in a morgue… no? Just me then. The new Zedwell Capsule Hotel in Piccadilly Circus gave me those vibes when I arrived. Other things that occurred to me as I clambered up a little flight of steps and into my capsule: I wish I hadn’t packed those pyjamas that look weirdly like scrubs. Then, a sort of catch-all thought occurs to me and lingers for the duration: “Well, it ain’t the Ritz.”
I should know, as I usually stay in and write about the world’s most high-end hotels, so this was a bit of a departure for me. For which I’m not expecting to hear even a single tiny violin. I am a serious journalist and any travel writer worth their salt should be prepared to embrace the high-low lifestyle.
This is the first Japanese-style “capsule” offering by Zedwell Hotels, which specialises in adapting empty or underutilised, windowless “dead-space” buildings in amazing central London locations into well-maintained, no frills, energy-efficient, budget hotels. It now has five properties including one in Knightsbridge that was once a Burberry storeroom and one on Great Windmill Street that was once the Trocadero.
Then there’s this new Zedwell Capsule Hotel, immediately across the street from the latter (20 seconds from Piccadilly Circus) and by the end of the year the two properties will be connected by an underground tunnel and share a co-working cafe, gym and automated laundry room.
The Capsule Hotel will also shortly have a bigger lobby and lockers for suitcases both in the basement and on every floor. There will even soon be a passage going directly from the Tube station into the hotel, which was once the London Pavilion, originally a 19th-century music hall.
Like many feats of modern design, the capsule concept originated in Osaka, with the first such property opening in 1979. Zedwell claims this is the world’s largest capsule hotel, with 1,000 capsules each sleeping one person. Dynamic pricing means they can cost from just £30 ($60) per night if you book far enough in advance and, because there are so many, sometimes even when you book on the day.
After both quizzing the manager and doing my own research online, I can tell you that you’ll never pay more than about £65 ($130) for a capsule and that will be for a last-minute Friday or Saturday night, but usually a lot less. For comparison, a bed in a shared single-sex dorm at the YHA London Central tomorrow night will set you back £25 ($50).
You don’t get anything in the nightly rate besides your capsule, its bed, bedding and a towel. If you want bottled water, you buy it from a vending machine in reception, which also sells hotel slippers, dental kits, padlocks for your capsule, etc. If you want to use a locker to store things, you pay for that on the spot.
Key card-locked corridors have capsules stacked two- or three-high on either side and little staircases between them leading up to the higher ones, sleeping between eight and about 40 people in each over five floors. Several are women only. While they are all above ground, there are no windows and as if to really hammer home that detail, the building will soon be wrapped in Piccadilly Circus’s famously bright billboards.
I brought an eye mask, despite being told that there is complete blackout once your shutter is down and the lights are off, but I wanted the option of keeping the light on, in case I suddenly felt claustrophobic and needed to escape in a hurry.
After a simple automated check-in I headed to my small women-only dormitory on the first floor. My immediate neighbour and someone two feet across from us were “at home”, which I knew because one had left sensible work shoes outside theirs, the other a pair of flowery flip-flops. A long, well-maintained shared bathroom with multiple toilets is two key-card taps away and includes shower cubicles with little changing areas and sinks with decent soap in dispensers.
If I’m honest, when I rolled up the shutter on my capsule I was shocked: apart from the bed (slightly bigger than a single mattress, which takes up the entire floor space), Scandi-style light wood panelled walls and ceiling and a big mirror behind the bed, the only other features are two hooks for hanging your towel and coat, and a ledge with a plug socket, USB and USBC charging ports, light and temperature controls, just behind my head.
Let’s be clear, it’s a crawl-in situation, although once I’d dragged my overnight bag in beside me and stopped internally freaking out, I realised I could sit up comfortably. Then I started to clock the important stuff: a Hypnos mattress, crisp white linen sheets, a decent duvet and perfectly acceptable pillow. It’s basically glamping but without the cold.
After doing my ablutions in the almost empty bathroom (obviously I forgot my towel on the first trip but nailed it the second time), I scampered back to my capsule feeling pleased with myself, hopped in, rolled down the shutter, dimmed the lights to camping lantern level and cosied up under the duvet with my book. I fully expected to hear the rumble of the Tube below but instead only heard the occasional shutter being raised or lowered nearby and once or twice brief chatter. I fell asleep at 10.30pm, at least an hour earlier than I have in about a decade and didn’t wake up until 6.30am.
In the lift down the next morning was a group of young Asian tourists, two Italian students, a man in a suit and a middle-aged woman who told me she had just stayed a week while in London for work and will definitely stay again.
Given the absurd price of good hotel rooms in London today, I came away thinking it’s pretty astonishing that you can stay somewhere this clean and efficiently run in such a central location for so little. If you worked in the area and were going out for the evening, it could easily cost you less to stay here than to get a late-night cab home.
Yes, getting dressed while half-lying on my bed would drive me to distraction after one night, but this is a pretty clever offering for the capital. If you think you might need to escape your family this Christmas, I’ve just noticed that right now, you could book both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day nights for £35 ($70) each. You’re welcome.
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