Why London Has Fallen Head Over Heels for Sauna
A city famous for its reserve has developed a passionate relationship with communal heat bathing. London's sauna scene has gone from nonexistent to one of Europe's most dynamic in under a decade.
London has always been a city that adopts other cultures' best ideas and makes them its own. French cuisine, Japanese ramen, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Italian coffee — the city absorbs, adapts, and amplifies. It was perhaps inevitable that Nordic sauna culture would receive the same treatment.
In 2016, there were perhaps half a dozen dedicated sauna venues in London. By 2026, there are over sixty — ranging from grassroots community operations in converted railway arches to multi-million-pound wellness destinations in Grade I listed buildings. London has not just adopted sauna culture; it has become one of Europe's most dynamic sauna cities.
Why Now?
Several factors converged to make the 2020s London's sauna decade.
Post-pandemic wellness hunger. The lockdowns of 2020–2021 produced a powerful reaction against isolation, sedentary home life, and screen-dominated socialising. When restrictions lifted, Londoners sought out physical, social, and restorative experiences with unusual urgency. Sauna — which offers all three simultaneously — was perfectly positioned to meet this demand.
Nordic influence. London has a large and influential Scandinavian community: tens of thousands of Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, and Finns working in the city's finance, tech, and creative industries. These residents brought sauna culture with them, both as personal practice and as entrepreneurial opportunity. Several of London's best sauna venues were founded by Scandinavian expats.
The wellness media amplification. London's position as a global media centre meant that when sauna began to trend, it trended loudly. Features in The Guardian, Time Out London, Vogue, and dozens of wellness publications drove curiosity and trial among audiences who might never otherwise have encountered a proper sauna.
Social media aesthetics. The combination of London's industrial-chic architecture — converted factories, railway arches, Victorian bathhouses — with sauna's photogenic steam and warmth produced imagery that performed exceptionally well on Instagram. The sauna aesthetic and the London aesthetic turned out to be highly complementary.
The Venues Shaping London Sauna Culture
Hackney Sauna in east London was among the early pioneers: a stripped-back, community-focused operation in a railway arch that prioritised the authenticity of the experience over amenity. Finnish-built sauna, outdoor cold plunge, honest pricing. It built a passionate following among east London's young professional demographic and helped establish the template for what followed.
Peckham Lido combines an outdoor heated lido pool with an excellent sauna, creating a community bathing culture in south London that manages to feel genuinely democratic. Membership is affordable, the atmosphere is relaxed, and the mix of ages and backgrounds using it reflects the neighbourhood.
