A communal sauna with ‘cold plunges and chill-out area’ could be coming to a park in Denmark Hill, if early plans come to fruition.
Community Sauna Baths – a company proving a success up in east London – is proposing to bring their venture to Ruskin Park as early as this autumn.
The initial plans – which are currently in the consultation phase – propose saunas, cold plunges and a chill-out area to be installed near the depot.
The sauna will be able to be booked on a reservation basis and if it’s anything like the one in Hackney – punters will have to be quick.
Charlie Duckworth, director of Community Sauna Baths, told us: “The response in Hackney has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are consistently sold out.
“We think sauna has a really positive impact on communities.”
In terms of pricing, if the same as Hackney, off-peak entry for a one-hour session is £8.50 whilst peak entry is £15.
Mr Duckworth said if it went ahead there would be several concession rates and free sessions available, “to make it as inclusive and affordable to as many people as possible.”
He continued: “It is crucially important for us that locals and park users want the sauna, and that it serves their needs – so we are just figuring that out at the moment with meetings and consultations to follow but we very much hope we can set up.”
Asked why Ruskin Park, he said: “There’s been a huge demand from users for a south London site. Twenty per cent of our users have a south London postcode, which means tens of thousands of people have been travelling across London to sauna.”
He said the hope was to change this by bringing one south of the river.
“Ruskin is an iconic, well-connected south London park and is a park I have grown up by and loved,” he explained, “so for me it’s the perfect location.”
Being in Denmark Hill, its connection with the nearby King’s College Hospital and the Maudsley was also taken into account.
“Its connection with the hospital also makes sense for us,” Mr Duckworth said, “given our focus on health and wellbeing, our free NHS sessions and our growing social prescribing work, which enables health providers to prescribe sauna for health conditions.”
“Timewise, all things going well and with local buy-in, we hope to be open for autumn this year.”
This won’t be the first public sauna in the borough. Since the 1950s there has been one in the basement of the Finnish Church in Rotherhithe – and it turns out it is a hit with locals.
Mervi Mattila, the manager, said: “It is a very big thing in Finnish culture, in the past people had their weekly wash in the sauna, did laundry in the sauna and even gave birth in the sauna.”
“Most Finns have a sauna in their house, and public saunas in Finland can be found everywhere, even in blocks of flats.”
They offer private and public slots – public slots cost £10.
“Our sauna is popular, at the moment all of January is booked up, and February is filling fast.”
Mervi added that local people have now found the sauna and commented: “Of our users, over 70 per cent are locals.”
In terms of the plans for Ruskin Park, a Lambeth Council spokesperson said that whilst there were no plans in place, they were keen to explore the options.
“We are currently examining the potential for working with not-for-profit organisations to create community saunas, using disused sites that are currently inaccessible to the public in and around our parks.
“There are currently no plans in place for Ruskin Park.
“But we are keen to explore the options for Lambeth as saunas provide physical and mental health benefits. There is the potential here to make these benefits available to our residents in a way that is accessible, regular and affordable.”