It began with a soak in Japan
More than forty years ago, a British architect — one of the first women to qualify in the profession in the UK — travelled to Japan and fell for something the rest of the world hadn't caught onto yet: the deep, upright soaking bath, the ofuro, found in homes and inns across the country.
Back home, she designed a bath to bring that experience to Britain. She called it the Omnitub. It was never mass-produced — it found a quiet, devoted following, kept alive by hand by a few people who believed in it.
Rediscovered — by another trip to Japan
Decades later, James Vearncombe made the same journey, and came back certain that Britain was missing a proper, deep, heat-holding soak. Then he discovered that the very thing he'd fallen for already existed — a dormant British brand with two moulds and almost no market: the Omnitub.
Others saw a product with no demand. James saw what it could be. In 2005 he took a small workshop in Lympsham, Somerset, and set about reviving it — building each one by hand, the way it always had been.
- 01Revived in 2005Two moulds, one workshop, and a belief in the idea
- 02Lympsham, SomersetWhere every Omnitub is still made today
- 03Built by handHand-laid, finished and inspected — one at a time
From two sizes to a craft at scale
When Oliver Exley first saw the tubs, he had the reaction everyone seems to — he fell for them. He built omnitub.co.uk and set an ambition that felt almost absurd at the time: that a maker with two sizes of bath should one day offer fifty. We're nearly there — and the range is broader still.
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Bañeras profundas japonesas
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Baños sentados
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Deep Shower Baths
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Ice Baths
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Omnitub British-Made Shower Trays
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Bañeras de hidromasaje extraprofundas
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We supply homeowners, designers and trade — the domestic, commercial and hospitality worlds, the cold-plunge community, and one-off bespoke commissions — shipping to more than 220 countries. We stay small enough to stay agile, and we build everything ourselves, by hand, in Somerset.
Still made the way it was meant to be
Every Omnitub is hand-laid from Omnigel, our built-up system, finished and inspected by hand, and backed by a 30-year guarantee. More than forty years on, the idea hasn't changed: a bath deep enough to disappear into, made properly, made to last.
- 017-layer OmnigelUp to 13 layers with our insulation upgrade
- 0230-year guaranteeOn every tub we make
- 03Made to orderIn your colour — BS 4800, RAL or paint-match
- 04220+ countriesHandmade in Somerset, shipped worldwide
The architect who designed the very first Omnitub would, we think, be rather pleased it's still here.
