Free sauna has become a 'real community hub'

A free-to-use sauna in Kent has become a "real community hub" due to its accessibility, its manager has said.

In 2014, the company People Care. Planet Care - formerly known as Haeckels - launched a fundraising campaign to build a community sauna in the Cliftonville area of Margate.

More than £30,000 was raised to help build the sauna in the style of a 19th Century bathing machine, which since 2020 has been set up permanently at Walpole Bay.

Manager Tyler Halliday says that taking away the "payment barrier" makes the space accessible for everyone and instils a sense of ownership.

"People feel like it belongs to them, and they want to look after it," he said.

"All the public here absolutely adore it, and they look after it. I think that's part of why people love it so much."

Carolina Soto Pik, who has been a user for five years and a volunteer for two, describes the sauna as "my therapy".

She said: "Everybody here is in a really good mood; if you have problems you leave them outside; inside it's just a zen space."

Mr Halliday said the sauna was the only free facility of its kind in the UK.

When built, it was intended as a "hark back to the history of bathing machines in Margate", which were used frequently in the town during Victorian times.

"The design was completely custom. You'll never find something else that looks quite like it," he added.