Where it all started
It all began in a sauna, when I stumbled across a pop-up on Brighton Beach as part of the Fringe festival. From that first experience, I was hooked – a different kind of heat, the views of the sea, and the serene atmosphere contrasting with the beach’s blustery conditions. The obligation to leave my phone (and worries) at the door only added to the experience.
Newcomers to my sauna often express their disappointment about their past experiences with British saunas, leading them to steer clear of the experience. I could certainly relate, having had similar reservations about ‘leisure centre’ saunas. However, that initial encounter with an authentic wood-fired sauna proved to be life-changing, and I knew immediately that I wanted to create a similar experience for others. Partnering with a fellow sea-swimmer, we crowd-funded and grafted hard to bring our unique sauna to fruition.
Despite initial setbacks with the pandemic, my son Louis and I have been running our sauna on Worthing Beach every weekend for the past two years.
Our mission
Simple: to keep providing this safe sauna space on Worthing beach. One of the things that struck me the most about Finnish sauna culture is how commonplace and mainstream sauna is – it really is a regular part of people’s lives, a place to meet and talk and be together.
I strive to make my sauna as accessible as possible, to anyone who wants to try it. I’ve kept my prices the same since 2020, and have recently introduced social saunas so that individuals can enjoy
sauna too (much like I first did).
Our sauna
I recently had the pleasure of meeting the man who actually built my horse box in 1978, just up the road in Cowfold! 45 years later I found it on Facebook and, with a lot of hard work and creativity, transformed it into the sauna you see today.
Constructed from Norwegian spruce and English Alder, and equipped with a 200 kg wood-fired Estonian stove and Finnish olivine rocks, I’m very happy with the result and the combination of materials from the UK and beyond.