Why this one made the list
Barrel sauna next to the Mixed Pond; same operator, post-pond-swim regulars; bookings repeat weekly through autumn/winter cold-swim season.
Practical
- Address
- Parliament Hill Lido, Gordon House Road, Hampstead Heath, London, NW5 1NA
- Postcode
- NW3 7JR
- Cost
- £3.50 per hour
- First visit
- Tickets sold on the day on a first-come basis (30 per session). Bring swimwear, towel and flip-flops; sit on a towel inside the sauna.
- Website
- https://beachboxspa.co.uk
What you'd want to know
Wood-fired barrel sauna at Parliament Hill Lido on the southern edge of Hampstead Heath. A small cylindrical cedar barrel sauna and an adjacent shipping-container sauna sit on the lido's concrete deck, beside the long unheated 60m outdoor pool with its silver stainless-steel tank glinting under open sky. The lido's red-brick 1938 Art Deco entrance and clock tower stand at the entry. Bathers move barefoot from sauna to lido in the cold months, sitting on towels on the timber bench inside. Brick-paved deck around the pool; long views east across the Heath toward the city; oak and beech canopy rising beyond the perimeter fence.
Overheard
- tickets go on a first-come basis per hour-long session — turn up early in cold-swim season, especially weekend mornings.
- autumn through spring only. summer it disappears, so the regulars treat it as a winter ritual not a year-round thing.
- the move is mixed pond first, sauna second — most people do their swim then come back warm. don't go in the sauna cold.
- go barefoot from the barrel to the pool side. concrete deck is cold but you'll warm up the second you sit down inside.
- adults-only, so it's not a family scene. quiet, heath-edge feel — you'll see the same swimmers week after week through november.