Bradford city centre will be home to a new luxury spa

Royal Onsen, which is due to open in spring, will be a clinic and day spa offering Turkish baths, a mud chamber and hydrotherapy.

The business will bring some much-needed life to a “neglected” area of the city centre, and a unit that has never been occupied.

The £3.5m, 69-bed Travelodge opened on Valley Road in 2012. But a ground floor unit under the hotel, which was designed to be a shop, never found any tenants, despite being a short distance from Forster Square Station.

It was a sign of the lack of investment in that area of the city – the multi-million pound hotel is near a number of derelict buildings, many of which have been subject to stalled redevelopment plans over the years.

Now Royal Onsen has announced that the unit will be home to the company’s first “luxury clinic and day spa” and hopes it will rejuvenate the area, as well as its customers.

The 3,000sq ft business is expected to create at least 12 jobs, and work on the unit is currently underway.

The long empty unit under the Travelodge (Image: newsquest)

The Japanese-inspired business was founded by Maryam Iqbal, an industry leader in the beauty and wellbeing sector who has been running The Beauty Den in Bradford for the past five years.

The company said: “This state-of-the-art facility that will offer residents from Bradford and beyond an opportunity to escape the hustle and bustle of city life allowing them to unwind and rejuvenate in a luxurious setting.

“Promising an unforgettable experience, Royal Onsen will bring to Bradford a range of facilities that cannot be found under one roof in the city.

“In the wake of the pandemic, city centres are being forced to adapt to changing patterns of employment and commuting.

“The investment into the neglected corner of the city centre, will create at least a dozen jobs, feature seven treatment rooms and offer Bradford residents a range of experiences previously unavailable."

Facilities will include a hydrotherapy pool, sauna and steam rooms, a Turkish bath experience and a rasul mud chamber.

It will also offer health, beauty and wellbeing treatments including microdermabrasion, hydrafacials, laser hair removal and fat freezing.

Mrs Iqbal said: “Demand for high quality and affordable spa experiences and beauty treatments has steadily been increasing, but supply, especially in the North of England, has been lacking.”

Her husband and business partner Harris Iqbal said: “We’re creating an environment where people can come and truly switch off.”