A derelict barge, a stubborn idea, and a lot of cold water
We didn't set out to start a business. We set out to find somewhere in London to do the thing we'd fallen in love with on a trip to Finland. There was nowhere — so we built it on the canal.
From a cold lake in Lahti to a cold canal in N1
In the winter of 2018, our founders — a boat-builder and a former NHS physio — spent a week at a lakeside sauna outside Lahti. They came home changed: clearer, calmer, oddly addicted to the shock of cold water after heat. London, it turned out, had almost nowhere to do it.
So they bought a tired old narrowboat that had been sitting half-sunk in Wenlock Basin, stripped it back to the steel, and spent eleven months turning it into a working sauna — cedar-lined, wood-fired, with a plunge dock cut into the towpath beside it. Tide & Timber opened to its first six dippers in November 2019.
Six years on, we're still here, still on the same mooring, still keeping each session to six people so it never feels like a queue. The water's still cold. The welcome's still warm.
Four things we won't compromise on
Small by design
Six bathers, never more. A sauna should feel like a refuge, not a rush. We'd rather turn people away than cram the barge.
Water you can trust
The plunge is filtered, UV-treated and tested every single day. We publish the readings on the dock so you always know what you're stepping into.
Heat that's honest
Sustainably sourced birch, a proper wood-fired stove and renewable electricity for everything else. No shortcuts, no greenwashing.
Everyone's first time
No one is born knowing how to use a sauna. Our hosts guide, never lecture — whether it's your first dip or your five-hundredth.
The people who keep the fire lit
Saana Lehto
Grew up by a lake in Finland. Builds the heat, sets the löyly and somehow remembers every regular's name.
Tom Mercer
The hands that rebuilt the barge from the steel up. If something on the water moves, creaks or floats, Tom looks after it.
Priya Anand
A former NHS physio who leads our breathwork sessions and keeps a careful, kind eye on everyone's first cold plunge.
Jordan Okafor
Runs the daily water testing, greets every booking and makes the best dock coffee on the Regent's Canal. Don't argue.
Run properly, checked regularly
The best way to understand it is to feel it
Words only go so far. Book a session, step onto the dock and find out why people keep coming back.