Sea scrub sauna – spa on the seafront

Sea Scrub Sauna is a spa complex planned to be built on the beach between Folkestone Harbour and Shoreline.  Robin Bartlett, owner of Sea Scrub Sauna, that has spas in Margate, Whitstable and Faversham, spoke to Folkelife about the plans for Folkestone.

sauna on the seafront

“What you’re going to see, as you look out across the beach, are a series of containers that will be fitted out as a Beach Spa, open all year round.  It’s a new term here in the UK, but will become more common over the next few years.  The main focus is sauna and thermo-therapy, the use of heat and cold to help you feel well.  Thermo-therapies are used a lot to reduce pain and swellings in joints, it’s scientific, and used by the NHS as well as in private practice.   There’s evidence of thermo-therapies improving physical and mental wellbeing, and it’s a social thing too, so I’d say it crosses three categories.  

“You can mix other practices with thermo-therapies too, such as yoga and other physical movement based activities.  This is evolving really fast across the world, and you hear of wonderful things like life-drawing classes around sauna as well.”

converted containers

“What you will see is buildings in keeping with the other businesses at the Harbour.  We will have modified shipping containers with big windows.  You’ll walk into a welcome area, reception with café stocked with healthy drinks and snacks. Here’s where you will wait for your session to start, and do a bit of socialising. You’ll walk through to the beach side where there will be two saunas in front of you.  One is a social sauna, for large groups, and we’re currently designing a smaller sauna, for private groups which will be in a Shepherd’s Hut sort of building. 

“There will be a big hot tub in the middle; even if it’s blowing a gale at head height, everything from your neck down will be warm in the water. We’re building a series of bespoke cold plunges at different temperatures.  Not everyone can deal with 5° water, so we’ll have 10° too; it’s more comfortable for most people , and some like 15°.  If you haven’t had much experience of dealing with cold water, we can take you down in stages.”

changing facilities

“We want you to feel comfortable and build something that’s accessible for all, so there will be good changing facilities too. There will be fire pits for people to sit around and be sociable.  And the area will be partitioned off so that it’s not a public thoroughfare, but you are still part of the beach and close to the sea.

“One of the best things we do at sea scrub is give people access to outdoors all year round. There’s nothing like being out there in the winter, with the elements, being in your swimming gear, being comfortable and just enjoying it.  Everyone else, at that time of year, is huddled up in the thickest coat, braced against the wind. We’re about opening up the outdoors to everyone, throughout the year.”

health benefits

“For me, there are three main pillars of benefits.  First is physical, it’s cardiovascular.  You need to be going at least once a week, and the more often you go, the greater the benefits. When you consider that you’re just sitting down, enjoying yourself with others, you can be any age and the heat increases your heart rate equivalent to doing physical exercise.  This increases your heart health, and there are circulation benefits, and good for blood pressure too.  It helps muscles recover quickly, which means if you have joint issues or soreness, it can help with that. 

“The biggest thing for me though is the social benefits.  When you walk into a sauna, it’s a social thing. It brings people together.  You are sitting around in your swimmers, which might seem vulnerable, but this is a very safe space, and everyone’s in the same situation. You meet people who are from all walks of life, outside of our usual bubbles, and from different cultures.  Things happen over chats at sauna, business connections are made, friendly collaborations are formed.  It’s a space to meet where alcohol doesn’t feature, so it doesn’t have a negative effect on your physical and mental health, it has a positive social effect.”

loyly – the making of steam

“I know that when I use sauna I can feel the stress of the day (or longer) fading away the moment I sit down.  Sauna is becoming increasingly more popular over the last few years, and I can hear, anecdotally, just how it’s making a difference in people’s lives.  Some have said ‘Robin, I didn’t know anyone here before I started coming to sauna and now I’ve met loads of people.’  We find we have hen groups, or friends on holiday coming along in the summer, and wanting to do something together.

“Loyly is the only word in British that’s Finnish, and it translates to the movement of steam through air in a sauna.  It’s pronounced ‘Low-Lu’ and it’s a key word to know in sauna”

folkestone harbour makes sense

“We have sauna spas in Margate and Whitstable and have had many visitors asking when we’ll be opening in Folkestone, so it makes sense for us to be here.  I wanted to invest here though because of what’s happening here as part of the regeneration and development of the Harbour.  What’s happening is fantastic, for both visitors and locals, and we cater for both, which also benefits the town. 

“The reason this is a beach spa, and not just a sauna, is to cater for that wider market that Folkestone Harbour has been building over the last 10 years. There’s a market here that will support a bigger project, not just a small coastal town.  Folkestone feels like the best place for us to offer our biggest and best site we can possibly make, offering a greater role, a greater service, providing more than than any other site in the southeast.”