London Sauna Week Opens With 28 Venues and Harvia as a Partner

London Sauna Week opens Thursday, October 15, and runs through Sunday, October 25: eleven days of Aufguss, talks, boat saunas, a book launch and a charity sauna party, spread across 28 founding venues. Harvia, the Finnish heater maker, is listed among the Week’s supporters as its Innovation partner.

The organizers, founders Wendy and Mika, describe the Week as “London’s unofficial bid to become the sauna capital of the world just for one week.” Their September newsletter put the growth plainly: “Five years ago you could count the saunas on one hand. Now there are 60+.” It also conceded the title to Finland’s self-styled sauna capital: “Tampere can have the other 354 days, we’re happy with that.”

One map for a scattered scene

The core of the project is a website that puts every participating sauna’s sessions on a single map and calendar. “Booking stays with the venue, where it belongs,” the organizers write. Three weeks before opening day, the site already listed 197 sessions across fourteen saunas, and it carries a year-round “London Sauna Weekly” listing of the sessions that run every week.

The 28 founding venues range from bathhouses to boats. They include Community Sauna Baths, Rooftop Saunas, Banya No.1 Chiswick, Druid Street Saunas, Arvo Sauna, Sauna Social Club, Lowlu, WellNest, The Saunaverse and the floating saunas of TEMZ, Soak and Skuna Boats.

Harvia and a Finnish-heavy partner list

Harvia appears on the Week’s partner roster as “Harvia Sauna & Spa,” in the Innovation partner slot. The organizers have not said publicly what that role covers. Finland is well represented elsewhere on the list: Helsinki’s city tourism brand, My Helsinki, is the destination partner, and the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland and the Embassy of Finland in London are cultural partners.

Culture of Bathe-ing is the culture and media partner and Sauna Channel the media partner. Sauna Aid and Sauna for All, the group behind the public sauna charter, are charity partners. London Cable Car, Wildling and London Nootropics round it out.

What’s on

The Week opens at WellNest in Bermondsey on October 15. The founders and Aleksi Malmberg, director of the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland, open proceedings at 3:30 p.m., followed at 4 p.m. by a panel on whether sauna could become public health infrastructure, with Polly Joy Wilson and Dr. Gillian Stokes, moderated by Rachael McGrath. A launch party with guided sauna rituals, Kirtan singing and live drawing starts at 6:30 p.m.

Highlights from the rest of the program:

• October 16: Community Sauna Baths marks its fifth birthday in Hackney Wick, and The Sanctuary at &Soul in Shoreditch hosts a Sauna Rave.
• October 17 and 18: a Wellness Weekend at WellNest. On the 17th, Mikkel Aaland launches Naked Sweat with bathing historian Malcolm Shifrin and Jane Withers of Culture of Bathe-ing. SaunaNews covered the book and the return of Sweat last month.
• October 19: the Finnish Institute and Lowlu host The Naked Truth in Kentish Town, moderated sauna conversations in the spirit of saunarauha, or “sauna peace.”
• October 20: Soak’s sauna boat cruises from Westbourne Park to Paddington Basin, with a full sauna session once moored.
• October 24: The Saunaverse in Bow throws a free Sauna Aid fundraiser, with five saunas, a hot tub, Aufguss and DJs. Donations go toward getting the Sauna Aid trailer sauna to Ukraine.
• October 25: a closing gathering ends the Week.

Aufguss sessions run throughout at venues including Sauna Social Club in Peckham and Sweheat Sauna in the Royal Docks.

The Sauna Pass

Most sessions are booked and paid for with each venue as usual, and no pass is needed to take part. The optional Sauna Pass costs £39, or £19 for students and people on Universal Credit or other benefits, with no proof asked. It includes one free place at one of the organizers’ own events, a pass-holder price at the others, offers from participating saunas, 20% off the London Cable Car, a Sauna Channel discount and an entry to win a trip for two to Helsinki. The pass is valid through the end of October.