It was a great night for Topline Pools and Wellness as it scooped two top category awards and a gold standard award in the 2022 UK Pool and Spa Awards.
Now in its 12th year, the Pool and Spa Awards is one of the most prestigious competitions for the wet leisure industry attracting the highest calibre of entries from companies across the UK, with Topline Pools and Wellness coming away with the award for ‘Best Swimming Pool in a Hospitality Setting’ the award for ‘Health & Wellness Commercial Project of the year’ and a gold standard award in the ‘Health & Wellness Commercial Project of the year’ category.
The ‘Best Swimming Pool in a Hospitality Setting’ award was given in recognition for Topline’s outstanding work building a heated outdoor infinity pool at The Retreat Elcot Park, a picturesque Grade II-listed Georgian country house hotel located near Newbury in the heart of the West Berkshire countryside.
Designed and built in keeping with both the history and location of the hotel, the pool with its views over the North Wessex Downs, has already had rave reviews appearing in style magazine Harper’s BAZAAR’s pick of the ‘best hotels with outdoor pools for an alfresco dip in the UK’ and in iNews’ ‘list of the best UK hotels with outdoor pools’.
Having been acquired by acclaimed British hospitality brand, The Signet Collection, Topline Pools and Wellness was approached by spa design and development consultants, Spa Creators, to help transform the country house into a stylish spa hotel. As well as the stunning outdoor infinity pool, Topline also built an indoor hydrotherapy pool, Himalayan salt sauna and aroma steam room for its spa health club. And the hotel was recently crowned ‘hotel of the year’ and named ‘best place to stay in the UK in 2023’ by The Times and Sunday Times.
The award for ‘Health & Wellness Commercial Project of the year’ was for its innovative work creating a bespoke Halotherapy Room at Lion Quays Resort, an independently owned hotel and spa located just north of the market town of Oswestry in Shropshire.
As part of an ambitious development programme to extend its leisure club and spa with unique and exclusive spa facilities, Topline Pools and Wellness was again approached by Spa Creators to create a Halotherapy room incorporating suspended heated loungers – a first in the UK spa and leisure industry.
With no design precedent, Topline had to push the envelope and try untested construction concepts to solve the problems associated with the design, making this a truly bespoke project and a new concept in spa and wellness design.
Lion Quays is the first setting in the UK to feature this new innovation and the brief to give guests an extraordinary wellness experience and create the ultimate wow factor was truly met. Since its opening in July 2022, the feedback has been fantastic with users of the Halotherapy room blown away by the experience.
The gold standard award for ‘Health & Wellness Commercial Project of the year’ was for Topline’s work creating the health suite in the Wokingham Leisure Centre at the Carnival Hub.
Topline supported the construction of Wokingham Borough Council’s new flagship community building with the build of a Finnish Sauna, Himalayan Salt Sauna, Aroma Steam Room, Citrus Steam Room and three Corian-topped Heated Loungers. Opened in July 2022, the new leisure facility is already a real focus for the community with residents enjoying the benefits of the luxurious health suite and improving their wellbeing in the state-of-the-art centre.
Hosted by Waterland Media in association with Swimming Pool Scene, Hot Tub & Swim Spa Scene and Holiday Park Scene, the awards evening took place at the National Conference Centre in Coventry.
Collecting the awards, Topline Pools and Wellness director, Andy Bolton said: “We are immensely proud of these awards and of all the teams involved on two fantastic projects.
“Neither were without their difficulties, so to come away with two top category awards is recognition for all the hard work the team at Topline put into Elcot’s incredible transformation and Lion Quays’ exciting development.
“In the past we’ve shied away from entering awards ourselves, preferring instead that our clients’ take the limelight, but we’ve been involved in some incredible projects recently and both the outdoor infinity pool and halotherapy room are projects we are particularly proud to have been part of.
“It’s been amazing to see the pool pictured in several high-profile publications and to read so many fantastic reviews, so we thought – why not? And the level of competition in both the Commercial Swimming Pools Awards category and the Water Leisure Business Awards was exceptional and adds to the prestige of both accolades, so we’re very pleased.
“We would also like to thank the organisers for planning and hosting such a fun evening and the judges for their recognition of Topline’s achievements.”
