Mason & Fifth, Westbourne Park

The Complex

The first thing you notice when you walk through the arches is that there’s a very good vibe here. The bricks and festoon lighting feels more Shoreditch than west London, but one look at the backdrop –  The Grand Union Canal – and you know exactly where you are.

This is a big space, but from a glance you’d never know it. There are 332 studios, a spa (with gym, pool, treatment rooms, spa and sauna), a cinema, different levels of work spaces, a listening bar/music studio, a café, an open space that operates as an ever-changing gallery/retail unit, and Canal restaurant.

The Vibe

It’s bustling and there are a lot of familiar faces around – not friends per se, but staff who you’ve likely noticed elsewhere. The décor throughout focuses on natural materials with pops of colour, with sumptuous fabric accents (like heavy curtains and velvet furnishings), as well as bright tiles and textured rugs. There’s greenery everywhere, and the views throughout are brilliant, especially on the upper floors.

The Rooms

The studios are small but perfectly formed. But they’re not the highlight here. A room is where you sleep (you could also cook if you were so inclined), but if you’re planning on staying awhile, the real sell is that they have everything you might need at your fingertips: modern laundry rooms, bikes, wellbeing and entertainment.

Restaurants/Bars

From the team who brought us Crispin and Bistro Freddie is Canal. With an open front that spills out onto the canal, this truly is a beautiful industrial-yet-warm dining room. Dine outside, perch at the bar, or reserve one of their windowfront booth-style tables. The menu is as you’d expect – natural wines and small plates – and it already seems to be a local hub. There’s something about this whole complex that reminds us of the early days at the neighbouring Westbourne Studios (when having offices that had a central restaurant and mild programming was revolutionary); this is just the 3.0, 2025 version.

Highlights

We love that Notting Hill Carnival have a costume-making studio in the complex; authentic west London community at its finest. And the offering: for rooms that are quite reasonably priced, there’s a lot going on here.

Anything Else

They have a schedule of different daily activities – from wellbeing to social and creative – and they’ve partnered with local businesses (like the incredible Layla Bakery) for products and events. And the workspace, ‘Meadow’, has a range of different memberships for local or will-travel-for-space creatives. TBC what the ongoing crowd who stays here will be like – stay tuned.