Somebody is coming to stay, the spare room has a frame and no mattress, and you'd rather spend the money on the weekend than on the bed. Or it's a first flat, and the budget ran out at the deposit. The Witton is Dreams' answer to both: a Dreams Workshop mattress built at Dreams' own factory in the West Midlands, with open coil springs under two layers of polyester filling. It's the plainest of the Workshop's sprung beds, one sleeping side with no wool and no foam, and all it sets out to be is a decent bed for very little. Lie on your back and you're held flat and level, with a little springiness under you.
If you know it as the Simmonds, this is the same published build under a new name: Medium, 288 springs in a double, one sleeping side and 19cm deep, and the double has crept up in price with the change. Our tester lay on it at Dreams in March 2025, before the name changed. Lying on their back at 68kg, they found the support good, with no sag at the hips and the spine in line, and the polyester stopped them feeling the coils.
Changing position was where it showed its price. Each turn brought a little spring bounce, which they noticed every time, though it didn't bother them once they were settled on their back. The edge was less reassuring and sank a fair bit when they sat on it. So buy it for a back sleeper who needs a bed now and can't stretch further. Don't buy it as the every-night bed for a restless couple, and don't buy it for a child to grow up on.
Steady on your back, with a little bounce every time you turn
The bounce comes from the way the springs are joined. An open coil unit is one sheet of springs wired together, so when you roll from your back to your side, the coils under your hip pull on their neighbours and a patch of the surface moves with you. Lie still and none of that happens, which is why a back sleeper gets on with it so well. The edge gives most of all, since the unit has no firmer border built round it, and a double with a soft edge sleeps more like a small double once two of you are in it.
Back sleepers of about average weight are the easy fit, and front sleepers get the same flat support. A side sleeper under about ten stone will find a Medium open coil firm at the shoulder, because the hip and shoulder can't sink far enough into two polyester layers to let the spine run straight. Light sleepers should steer clear. If you share the bed with someone restless, you'll feel each of their turns travel through those linked coils.
Bought on price, and often for someone else
Most of the reviews are for the Simmonds, and they read straight across to this bed. Value comes up more than anything, and so does the person it was bought for: a son's first proper bed, a teenager whose old mattress was too soft, the spare room. Delivery gets plenty of praise too, which is a compliment to Dreams' vans, not to the bed.
The complaints are about springs and firmness, which is what I'd expect from this build. Some owners could feel the springs. One felt them under their hipbones on the first night and stopped noticing them after a few weeks, and another put it bluntly: "I recommend get a pocket sprung one instead if at all possible." When owners disagree with the Medium label, they mostly call it hard, and one side sleeper wrote "Quite firm so I added a foam topper as I'm a side sleeper." A topper is exactly what sorts out a bed that's too firm. If you sleep on your side, take those owners at their word: to them it reads firmer than its Medium grade, and a side sleeper's shoulder is where an open coil makes itself felt.
I keep open coil for spare rooms, and this one does that job well
Pocket springs every time, for me, and open coil only on a tight budget or in a guest room. The Witton is a fair open coil for either. It's new, it keeps a back sleeper level, and one owner who bought it to replace a twenty-year-old mattress called it the best purchase they'd ever made. A fresh open coil beats a worn-out anything.
What it can't do is stop one sleeper's turning reaching the other, because every coil is tied to the next, and 288 of them in a double is an ordinary count for this kind of unit, so don't let the number sway you. Those children's rooms are where I disagree with the happy owners, too. A growing back gets pocket springs from me, and I'd find the extra for any bed a child sleeps on every night.
Light enough to carry up alone, and it only ever rotates
Our tester could shove it around the shop floor one-handed, and owners call it light, so getting it up to a spare room doesn't need a second person. There are no handles, though, and owners have asked for them. With one sleeping side, it rotates and never turns over. It comes full size, not rolled up in a box, so check the width of your stairs and the landing turn before ordering.
A standard fitted sheet is plenty for its 19cm depth in a double. Dreams rules it out for adjustable bases, so it goes on a slatted frame or a divan. If you do buy it as an every-night bed and it's wrong for you, the 100-Night Comfort Guarantee at Dreams swaps it for another mattress, for a charge, and doesn't refund you. The guarantee also requires a protector from the first night, so put one on before anyone sleeps there.
What to buy instead
If the Witton is going to be somebody's every-night bed, pay more for pocket springs. The Dream Team Maidstone gives you 858 pocket springs in a double, each one moving on its own, plus a second sleeping side so you can turn it. It's sold Firm, which suits back and front sleepers best, and I'd buy it in a sale.
Side sleepers should look at the Dream Team Tadley instead, with a thin layer of memory foam over pocket springs that is kinder to a shoulder, though its edges are soft too, so wait for a sale on that one as well. For the spare room, the first flat or the month when money's tight, the Witton does its job and I wouldn't talk you out of it.
