Some people sleep best on a mattress that barely gives. A softer bed has left their lower back sore by morning, they've been happier on something flat and hard, and now they want very firm again without it feeling harsh. The Sleepeezee Regency Kenilworth 1600 Pocket Sprung Mattress is the bed Dreams sells to that person: a pocket-sprung mattress Sleepeezee makes for Dreams alone, graded Very Firm, with a flat top and no foam anywhere in it. It's the entry rung of the four beds in the Regency range, and the slimmest. I lay on one at Dreams, and on my back it felt like a firm, supportive platform with a refined surface on top.
That was at the end of October, and I tried the Dreams Kenilworth front, back and side in turn. Side-on, at 61kg, it was too firm for me: very firm, with my shoulder sitting up on the surface and no give under it. On my back and front it was much more comfortable, and the surface felt more refined than the Dream Team orthos, such as the Dream Team Amersham 1200, which I found hard going. Sleepeezee isn't a name I usually reach for, so it surprised me that this was the best-made very firm bed I tried. Its sibling, the Sleepeezee Regency Kew 2800, is one grade softer at Firm, 8cm deeper and double-sided, and those differences decide it for most back sleepers.
So the Kenilworth is for heavier people who sleep on their backs, need Very Firm and want it made with some care, and for anyone on an adjustable base who needs that firmness, because it bends with one. Heavier front sleepers get the same flat support. Average-weight back sleepers should take the Kew, and side sleepers should walk past both. It's no bed for a spare room either, since very firm suits too few guests. My one complaint about the make is the depth: at 23cm, and one-sided, it's thin for the money.
Very Firm and flat, with a thin pad and no foam
Dreams sells it in one grade, Very Firm, the top of its own scale, and it sits at the top of our firmness scale as well. Under you there's a bamboo cover, a bamboo comfort layer, a layer of polycotton and a layer of polyester. Then comes one layer of pocket springs, with another polyester pad under them. That top pad is thin, so the springs take your weight almost at once. On your back, your lower back meets the bed with no dip to hang over, and the support runs evenly from your shoulders to your heels. Roll onto your side and your shoulder has nowhere to go.
Owners describe the bed I lay on. One calls it "firm just like it says on the tin" and "not a bed to wallow in". Another says it feels soft, and admits that sounds confusing. I'd read that as a pleasant surface on a hard bed: the top is refined, and the firmness is all underneath. Dreams also calls it orthopaedic. I read that word on a label as firm and nothing more, and here it means very firm.
The bamboo is a fibre spun from bamboo pulp, and Dreams sells it as cooling. I'd give the credit to the whole build. There's no foam in this mattress to soak up your heat, air moves through springs and fibre, and one owner describes a cool night's sleep on it. If you run warm and need very firm, it's a good match.
Handmade quality, but 23cm is slim for the money
The make is lovely. The surface is neat and even, the springs are good, and it's made in the UK at Sleepeezee's own factory in Kent. I usually treat "handmade" as romance and judge a bed by its spec, but the finish on this one is the reason it beat the Dream Team orthos for me, so it gets the credit.
Where it comes up short is how much is in it. Six layers and 23cm (about 9 inches) is slim against the rest of the Regency range, which runs from 31 to 34cm, and there's only a thin pad of fibre between you and the springs. The Kew is 8cm deeper and fills its 31cm with eleven layers and two layers of springs. With the Kenilworth you're paying for the finish, not for depth. Ordinary fitted sheets will reach round it, so you won't need deep-pocket ones.
Nor can you turn it over. A mattress with two faces spreads the wear between them and lasts longer, which is why I prefer one. On the Kenilworth you swap the head end for the foot end instead: once a week for its first three months, then monthly. One owner calls those weekly rotations hard work, and I believe them, because a double comes in at 39kg and a super king at 54kg. Ask someone to help with the early ones and keep to the schedule, because Sleepeezee voids its guarantee if the care instructions aren't followed.
No size of the Kenilworth has 1,600 springs
The 1600 in the name is a range number, not a count. A double has 1,443 pocket springs, a king 1,716 and a super king 2,028, and the number falls with the width, down to 1,290 in a small double, 962 in a single and 858 in the 2'6 small single. When you compare it with another bed, compare the same size.
I don't get excited about spring counts. Past about 1,500 in a king the number tells you very little, and the gauge of the wire and the layers above the springs tell you more. The springs here gave me firm, even support, and it's the layers that are thin. If you're heavy, ask Dreams for the wire gauge first, since that tells you more about how the springs will carry you than the count does.
Kenilworth or Kew: the Kew suits most back sleepers better
This is the comparison most people in front of the Kenilworth should make, and the Kew wins it unless you need Very Firm. It's Firm, 31cm deep, with two layers of springs and 2,377 of them in a double, and it's double-sided, so you can turn it. It was better on my back than the Kenilworth, it was the best firm bed I tried, and its edge was the strongest I sat on. If Firm is enough for you, buy the Kew.
The Kenilworth is for the person a Firm bed still feels too soft for: a heavier back sleeper who sinks through most mattresses. Neither of the other two Regency beds is a flat alternative. The Sleepeezee Regency Kennington 4200 is Medium with a pillow top, and the Sleepeezee Regency Knole 5600 is the range's other Very Firm, also with a pillow top sewn on. I'd talk you out of both, because I expect a soft top sewn onto a mattress to be the first part to flatten, and you can't turn either of them over. That leaves the Kenilworth as the one flat Very Firm of the four.
Owners who bought it for firmness got it
The happy owners bought it to be firm and say so, and a bad back runs through a lot of their stories. One says it has done wonders for their back pain. Another says it supports a lower back condition that other mattresses failed. One owner who perches on the edge says it doesn't collapse, and another says a partner getting into bed doesn't disturb them, which is the pocket springs doing their job.
The clearest warning comes from a couple who gave it three stars: it's great if you need super firm, they say, and in middle age it's giving them hip pain. That's the risk with any very firm bed, and it's why I send side sleepers elsewhere. Owners also say it's heavy, and one owner struggles to make the bed because of it.
It bends with an adjustable base, and couples need to sleep alike
Dreams lists it as compatible with its Sleepmotion adjustable bases, so it flexes as the head and foot sections rise. I find adjustable bases overpriced for most buyers, but for anyone who already has one and needs very firm, this is the mattress I'd choose. One owner bought two for a pair of adjustable frames and says they suit the frames perfectly. On a fixed bed, a divan is fine, and on a slatted frame keep the gaps to 3 inches (76mm) or less, which is Sleepeezee's own limit, because wider gaps leave the springs without support.
Couples are the hard case. My partner sleeps on their back or front and I sleep on my side, so this is a bed built for the way they sleep and against the way I do. The super king also comes zipped as two single halves, and both halves are Very Firm, so zip and link gives you two lighter pieces to carry upstairs and the same feel on each side. If you and your partner sleep in different positions, buy a bed you can both sleep on. If you're both heavier back sleepers, it suits you both.
Lie on it in the shop, because there's one grade
It's sold in Very Firm only, so if that turns out wrong at home, the way out is Dreams' 100-Night Comfort Guarantee, which swaps it for a different mattress. Dreams won't take an exchange in the first month, gives you one per order, charges for the collection and the new delivery, and expects a protector on the mattress from the day it arrives. That's a lot of hoops to jump through for a bed you could have ruled out in person. Go and lie on one at Dreams in your normal sleeping position and give it ten full minutes, because on a bed this firm that's long enough to know.
Kew, Chippenham or Helmsdale, by how you sleep
For an average-weight back sleeper, buy the Sleepeezee Regency Kew 2800. It's Firm, deeper, turnable, and it was better on my back. If you're heavy, sleep on your back, move about a lot and want to spend less, the Dream Team Chippenham 2500, sold alongside it, is the best-value very firm bed at Dreams. It's springier than the Kenilworth and kinder than the tufted orthos, though its guarantee is much shorter and I wouldn't put anyone under about 13 stone on it.
If you want firm but Very Firm is too much at your shoulder, the Dream Team Gold Helmsdale 7600 is my pick of the Dream Teams. When I lay on my side, its box top cushioned my shoulder enough for a Firm grade to feel comfortable.
