‘It lowers inhibition’: how saunas are challenging UK pubs as the place to meet

With venues sprouting, what was once a niche industry is sharing ideas on creating new community spaces

Delegates to the UK’s first ever sauna conference will file out after the final panel discussion facing a choice of where to carry on the conversations: bar or sauna?

The queue for the latter may well be longer – one reason why Britain’s sauna scene has expanded rapidly in the past few years is because aficionados feel they are surprisingly like pubs.