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← Back to SaunasWhy this one made the list
A traditional Russian banya on Chiswick High Road built on the hot-cold-rest-repeat cycle. Authentic steam room, icy plunge pool, parenie venik treatments and a relaxation lounge of borscht, herbal tea and honey — strangers share the benches and linger over food.
Practical
- Address
- 404–406 Chiswick High Road, London W4 5TF
- Postcode
- W4 5TF
- Setting
- Indoor
- First visit
- Standard entry is a 3-hour session with access to the steam room, plunge pool and bucket showers; book ahead online. Cycle hot steam, cold plunge, then rest in the lounge with tea or food — add a parenie venik treatment for the full experience.
- Getting started
- Intro / taster session · Walk-in welcome
- Booking
- Book ahead
- Website
- Banya No.1 — Chiswick
- @gobanya.chiswick
What you'd want to know
A double-fronted unit on Chiswick High Road opening to a multi-room banya. The authentic steam room runs hot and humid, with bucket showers and an icy plunge pool for the contrast cycle.
Hot stone rooms and private massage rooms sit off the main thermal area, plus a private spa lounge. A rest-and-relaxation lounge serves traditional Eastern European food and drink — borscht, honey, sea buckthorn, herbal tea — with bundles of birch, oak and eucalyptus veniks on hand for parenie.
Walls and benches are timber-clad in the Nordic-Russian bathhouse style.
Overheard from locals
- saturday afternoons are the busiest; weekday mornings are calm.
- the 3-hour entry is plenty — pace the hot-cold-rest rounds, don't rush them.
- book parenie ahead, it's the signature and the therapists get booked out.
- order borscht and herbal tea in the rest lounge — people stay for the food as much as the heat.
- bring flip-flops and a swimsuit; hats keep you cooler on the top bench.