The 10 best saunas in London

Seven wood-fired saunas, canalside · London

Seven wood-fired saunas run at different heats in a converted bathhouse by the canal, so a long afternoon rarely repeats a room. It is a little rustic and very sociable, and the non-profit model keeps the price low. Our curator calls it London's community sauna Mecca, and it has kept adding rooms since it opened.

“Since they first opened, they’ve made a bunch of changes, added quite a lot of new saunas.” · James

Finnish · £ · Cold plunge · Session-booked

Venik birch branches, Hoxton warehouse · London

This warehouse banya in Hoxton runs the Russian way, and the venik is the reason to come. Between rounds in the parílka, you are beaten with birch branches, which sounds considerably worse than it is. A cold plunge and a steam room fill the gaps, and the restaurant takes its food as seriously as the heat.

Banya · Steam · £££ · Cold plunge · Session-booked

Sauna listening bar in Peckham · London

A Peckham railway arch holding two decently sized saunas, plunge baths at a range of temperatures, and a sound system. Aufguss sessions run through the week and DJs play at weekends. Our curator was taken through the aufguss by the owner and scored it 5/5, reckoning the trek across town worth it.

“A bit of a trek, but worth a visit.” · Josje

Finnish · £ · Cold plunge · Session-booked

Bayswater's Grade II* Turkish bath · London

Porchester Spa is a Turkish bath in a Grade II* listed building, and the original features are still in place. You work through the tepidarium, caldarium and laconium, then a sauna, two steam rooms and a cold plunge pool. Most days are single-sex, so the day you pick decides who you bathe with.

Finnish · Steam · ££ · Cold plunge · Session-booked

Wood-fired boats under Canary Wharf · London

Skuna's sauna boats are wood-fired and moored at West India Quay, with the Canary Wharf towers standing over the dock. Between rounds you climb to the cold plunges on the roof or tip a bucket over your head. Sessions run to curated music, and the sauna team leads an aufguss each week.

Floating · Finnish · £ · Cold plunge · Session-booked

Aufguss at forty-person scale · London

The aufguss room in this Shoreditch basement seats forty, and the programme runs regularly rather than as an occasional event. A sober bar and plant-based dining sit upstairs. Day passes sell alongside memberships, so an evening here needs no commitment.

Finnish · ££ · Cold plunge · Session-booked

A Finnish church with its own sauna · London

The Finnish seamen's church in Rotherhithe heats a sauna of its own, with hot stones and a ladle for löyly. Public sessions are split between men and women, and groups of up to eight can take the room privately. Afterwards there is the church café, and a Finnish shop in the same building.

Finnish · £ · Session-booked

One sauna to talk in, one silent · London

Arvo is Australian slang for the afternoon, and this Walthamstow bathhouse takes its cue from Australia's coastal bathhouses. A social sauna and a silent one sit side by side, so each round you choose between talking and quiet. Most people start the cold side in the 10°C ice bath and work down to 5°C.

Finnish · £ · Cold plunge · Session-booked

A private cabin eleven storeys up · London

Rooftop Saunas puts its timber cabins on the roof of International House, eleven storeys above Brixton. Each booking gets a cabin to itself, with the London skyline in view. The cold plunges and waterfall buckets outside are shared, and longer sessions add a private cool-down room.

Finnish · £ · Cold plunge · Session-booked

Floating on the Thames at Teddington · London

TEMZ moors its floating sauna on the Thames at The Lensbury in Teddington, well upstream of central London. The pontoon rocks gently with the river, and the views run wide across the water. Ice baths sit out on the deck, and the same team runs a second mooring upstream at Hampton Court.

Finnish · Floating · ££ · Cold plunge · Session-booked