<aside> 📍 The Baths, 80 Eastway, London, E9 5JH 8 to 30 June 2022

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Exhibition by the British Sauna Society for London Festival of Architecture 2022, in collaboration with the Community Sauna Baths and Civic State.

An introduction to the exhibition by Mika Meskanen

In 1948 London hosted the 14th Summer Olympics. They became colloquially known as the “Austerity Games” due to the post-WW2 shortages, rationing and economic recovery.

Unlike the 2012 Olympics, the 1948 Games did not leave behind big stadiums or large-scale urban developments. Rather, existing infrastructure was put to use. Most venues have since been re-developed with the last one remaining in use being the Herne Hill Velodrome in South London.

However, there is another, unique remnant that links up Olympic, architectural and sauna history. This exhibition explores the story of the obscure, but not forgotten sauna that the Finnish Olympic team brought with them in 1948 and its life after the Games.

Reported as a “sensation” in the athletes’ camp, the sauna was designed as a complete recovery and relaxation facility with a spacious hot room, cold showers, massage tables and a kitchen. It was visited by many international athletes and proved so popular that Finnish team managers were concerned that it might have become a distraction.

The understated, modular and functional timber-clad design of the sauna fit perfectly in the Olympic village, which in itself was a repurposed military barracks in Richmond Park. Few people knew that it was actually drawn by the same architect who had co-designed Helsinki’s own Olympic Stadium. Even fewer people knew that its twin had also been chosen by the prestigious Finnish Sauna Society for their own use.

After the Games the sauna was relocated to Aylesford in Kent to the sports grounds of Reed paper company, where it became a part of the facilities offered to employees. This deal was also the beginning of trade between Finland and the UK on prefabricated and modular building systems.

The architectural context of this sauna wouldn’t be complete without discussing its manufacturer, Puutalo Oy (Timber Houses Ltd). In the era of post-war reconstruction, Puutalo became the largest export organisation for prefabricated wooden houses in the world. The company’s legacy was the theme of the exhibition “New Standards” in the Finnish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2021.

Whilst Puutalo houses were popping up across the UK and the world, in Aylesford the sauna became part of company sports facilities and was used by its employees until the Reed paper mills ceased in the 1990s. Its legacy was carried on by Cobdown Sports and Social Club who used the sauna on a regular basis until 2020.

What if more companies went to similar lengths, in providing their workers sports and well-being facilities, including world-class saunas?

This lost and found sauna of 1948 is in all likelihood the oldest surviving “Olympic Sauna” in the world and possibly the oldest surviving sauna in the United Kingdom as well. We hope this exhibition raises awareness and serves as a call to action to preserve the legacy of this extraordinary sauna and secure its future.

As an interlude to the story of 1948 we’re also excited to present unearthed designs from Barking Bathhouse, a communal installation created by architects Something & Son for the 2012 “Cultural Olympia”.

Finally, we ask you to make note of the very setting of this exhibition. This bathhouse and the saunas it hosts, embody a lot of the spirit – and offer beginnings of answers to what reviving communities could be.

@britishsaunasociety

Print version:

1948 Olympic Sauna intro board_A1.pdf