A new kind of sleep has landed in London — and it’s stacked sky-high.
Zedwell Capsule Hotel Piccadilly Circus has just opened what it calls the world’s largest capsule hotel, with nearly 1,000 sleeping pods spread across five floors above the chaos of Piccadilly Circus. The space occupies the former London Pavilion, a Grade II-listed landmark from 1859, reimagined to align with Zedwell’s philosophy of adaptive reuse — transforming existing structures instead of building anew.
The capsule hotel concept isn’t new: the first Capsule Inn Osaka debuted in 1979, designed by Japanese Metabolist architect Kisho Kurokawa as a minimalist solution for travellers who missed the last train or needed a short rest. The idea quickly spread across Asia — from China and Korea to Singapore — before crossing over to Europe and North America.
Now, London’s Zedwell brings that philosophy to the heart of the West End, offering cocoon-like calm right above one of the city’s noisiest squares.