“Britain needs more WARMTH”
How Beach Box Sauna Spa came to be.

Britain is known not only for its grey cold climate but also for the supposedly grey cold climate in the soul of its people. I joke of course, but there is still an air in 2018 of the British. Needing to be cracked open and our attitudes to be warmed somewhat. Can we start saying hello to strangers in the street? Or not wincing at a stranger’s (accidental) body contact on the tube? There may be a starting solution to the thawing of our Victorian hearts and it comes, perhaps slightly oddly, in the shape of not an unfamiliar concept. The sauna.
Birthed by our Nordic neighbors the Sauna culture is as ancient as it is progressive, coming with a list of health benefits from reducing levels of stress, easing skin conditions such as psoriasis and improving cardiovascular health. But it’s not only your physical health that is looked after as you inhale eucalyptus and sweat out your sins, it’s also a way of bonding with friends, family and strangers as you share the space and and the good (hot) vibes.
It’s an event that can include the young and the old as well as being inexpensive — A sure winner to involve the masses when these days it sometimes feels only the elite can afford new and interesting experiences! It also shuns the idea that being nude or partially nude in a semi public setting is something that’s going to cost you a night in a cell. Because let’s face it now more than ever in this age of instagram ‘perfection’ expectation we need to be finding new ways to embrace our bodies and share the variety of shapes and sizes our wobbly bits can come in.
It was for all these reasons that artist Bethany Wells ingeniously converted a horse trailer into a traditional Finnish sauna WARMTH.
WARMTH pop up sauna first opened its pine smelling doors to the people of Leeds at November 2016’s Compass festival and was explained as ‘a safe space to spend time, have conversations and challenge preconceptions about the performance of the body in public’.
More to it than meets the eye it seems — an alternative to a groupon voucher day spa it is NOT. No surprise then that when WARMTH Brighton hit notoriously alternative Brighton’s Fringe Festival this year it was a runaway success. Looks like it’s not just the cold snaps saunas are good for — but a warming of the soul and mind.
So is the average Brit ready for such a ‘European’ concept? The success WARMTH has seen so far would appear to scream YES while waving big bunches of birch leaves and Sauna Master, Katie Bracher and her business partner Liz Watson certainly seem to think so.
Katie saw WARMTH’s potential as part of the fringe festival and teamed up with Liz. The Fringe success inspired them to create a more permanent sauna fix on the famous Brighton pebbles — Beach Box Sauna Spa!
Article Written by Lucy Andreetti on behalf of Katie Bracher
