COMMUNITY SAUNA NETWORK

The Community Sauna CIC was born in Hackney Wick in 2021.

Its mission: to bring local, affordable and authentic sauna bathing to the UK.

Our first three years have clearly proven there’s an appetite for it!

We now want to share the love and help bring the benefits of sauna to the rest of the UK through a network of community saunas.

For more information please contact our CSN Manager, Freddie at freddie@community-sauna.co.uk

Community Sauna London Whisking Icon

  • The Community Sauna Network (CSN) is envisioned as a Community Interest Company (CIC) dedicated to supporting and empowering community saunas. The CSN aims to create a robust and resilient network across the UK by fostering collaboration, resource sharing, and advocacy, as well as funding new community saunas on a case by case basis. Through this incubator, The CSN will promote the development and sustainability of community saunas, enhancing their ability to serve diverse communities as well as promoting social & cultural initiatives which are at the core of our Community Sauna ethos.

  • The Network seeds and supports new community sauna initiatives around the UK. Individually, each Sauna CIC initiative benefits from knowledge and skill sharing, as well as practical support regarding start up logistics and site operations. The CSN also provides guidance on how to best engage with local authorities, planners and government. 

    As a collective, the network aims to ensure each Sauna initiative remains sustainable and continues to best serve its community in the long term. Together, we believe we can help each other thrive in a competitive market place while keeping saunas community led, affordable and accessible, as well as identifying and benchmarking standards and guidelines for Community Sauna CIC’s across the UK.

  • Network members will be expected to contribute a small percentage of their gross turnover to a central fund. Currently there are two tiers to this contribution. The lower rate tier will reflect more general consultation and start up support. The slightly higher rate tier will reflect support by way of the CSN providing equipment or financial assistance. The CSN will vote and decide where best this fund can be put to use, from starting new saunas to helping existing saunas grow.

  • The first sauna to join the network was the newly opened Bristol Community Sauna in 2024.

    Based in St Annes, the new 14-person electric sauna has been fully funded by the Community Sauna Network. The CSN provided the Bristol sauna with start-up costs, as well as consulting on various aspects of running a community sauna.

Some things to consider:

Do you have a location confirmed? If not, how hopeful/what stage are you at?

  • Is it a public or private space? Council/planning applications necessary?

  • Do you have a sauna already built? If not, do you have a sauna builder/supplier?

  • Do you have a grant/ funding/capital to launch the Community Sauna?

  • Have you legally formed as a CIC?

  • What community reach/ footfall do you anticipate?

Good candidates will share our values of being affordable inclusive spaces that are not for profit and have community at the very heart of their ethos.

  • We want to share the love and help bring the benefits of sauna to the rest of the UK, through a network of community saunas!

  • We believe that community saunas are best run autonomously by local people: it makes them more creative, inclusive and tailored to the needs of the community.

  • It also means that the future of the community sauna movement doesn’t depend on the success of a single organisation.

  • That’s why we’re launching the Community Sauna Network to seed and support new sauna companies around the UK.

    Apply for Community Sauna Network