‘Urban sauna oasis’ opens at Cambridge’s Indoor Skate Warehouse

A unique new wellness experience has launched in an unexpected location in the heart of Cambridge.

Heal Saunas opened a Nordic-inspired, wood-fired sauna and cold plunge retreat at the Indoor Skate Warehouse on Coldham’s Lane last Friday (30 May).

The outdoor-style urban sauna space combines traditional sauna culture with a relaxed environment and offers hot and cold therapy.

Visitors can enjoy a wood-fired sauna, cold plunges, a firepit, and a botanical garden complete with herbs and plants.

There’s also a refreshment area, shower facilities, changing rooms, and a outdoor lounge area with sofas, hammocks, and art from local creators.

Sam and Molly Medley are the husband-and-wife team behind Heal Saunas and have lovingly designed the space, having previously taken a temporary mobile sauna to High Lodge in Thetford Forest last November.

Sam said: “We’ve been into sauna for a little while – probably about four or five years now.

“We experienced a sauna ceremony when we were at a festival, and that’s what really got us into it.

“The practice that we’re really trying to promote, and the culture that we’re trying to promote, is the Eastern European and Scandinavian sauna culture.

“Finland are the leaders in this at the moment, but we really like the Eastern European culture because they bring a lot of the nature into the sauna.

“We forage all of our own natural items that we use in the sauna – leaf whisks form what we call a ritual within the sauna.

“It’s a two-hour ritual, and it’s probably what a Lithuanian person would just call a normal sauna session!

“But to us Brits it’s something quite new, and it is based on Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian practice.

“Molly and I travelled up to North Europe last year in our van and learnt from lots of other practitioners.”

At the moment, the sauna is essentially a pop-up that will just be at the skatepark over the summer – though Sam and Molly are hoping it will be there longer.

“It’s a collaboration with the skatepark,” said Sam. “We’re hiring a space in the carpark from them.

“It [the skatepark] is a volunteer-led initiative and the guys did only have a lease until September this year, which has now been extended to June 2026.

“So we’re hoping that it [the sauna] is going to become a semi-permanent thing for a year at least.”

Sam believes sauna-ing is “great at any time” but adds that it is a “more popular thing to do in the winter”, so hopefully it will still be there come November/December.

“It’s been really good, really busy over the evening [on Friday],” said Sam, “and then it was steady Saturday and Sunday; it’s been tiring getting it ready on time for it to open.

“But we knew what to expect because we have been trading for six months already.

“It’s been really well-received – there’s nothing else in Cambridgeshire like this, especially what Molly and I offer with our practice.

“We call ourselves sauna practitioners and we really take you on a guided journey.”

Sam concludes: “We want to create a community of sauna-lovers, whether they be existing sauna-lovers or new sauna-lovers.

“We want to introduce people to it and go a little bit deeper into the ancient practices of sauna, rather than it just being a place you sit in and get really hot!”

The sauna is open for early morning and evening communal sessions, with special twilight and sunrise sauna ceremonies on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

Prices start at £10 for a one-hour communal sauna and cold plunge session, bookable online at healsaunas.co.uk/book.

The Indoor Skate Warehouse – Cambridge’s first indoor skate park – opened in September 2024.