Salon spy: Spa at Chancery Court, London

252 High Holborn, London WC1 (020 7829 7058, www.spachancerycourt.com )

Atmosphere and clientele: If you really, really care about efficiency, professionalism and appearance, then this is the place for you. This spa manages an elusive combination of charming elegance with a laid-back and cosy atmosphere. Its spacious common areas and treatment rooms, limestone walls, soft lighting and stunning wood floors welcome everyone from yummy mummies and businessmen to girlfriends on a pampering night out.

Treatments and staff: The Spa at Chancery Court strives to offer some of the most innovative treatments around. Beyond its array of personalised massages, holistic facials and Ayurvedic Dosha packages, the spa offers specials, such as this month’s Organic Stress Squeezer (70 minutes, £100). Breathing deeply while squeezing aromatic handfuls of putty followed by a hot-stone massage sent our stressed-out spy into the sweetest nap she’d had in ages. Staff were very knowledgeable, and also incredibly warm and gracious.