Finnish sauna
Cedar benches on three levels, a stone heater and a ladle for the steam. Fifteen minutes, then out.
The bathhouse
Five rooms at five temperatures inside a brick ice works from 1924. Move between them at your own pace, for two hours or the whole afternoon.
Built to make ice
For forty years this building cut block ice for the river warehouses. The brick walls are two feet thick, which is exactly what a sauna wants.
We kept the arched windows, the timber roof and the old loading door, and put the heat where the compressors used to be. The plunge sits on the spot where the ice was stacked to cure.
- 1924The ice works opens and cuts its first block
- 1968The compressors stop for good
- 2023Tidewell opens the doors again
Five rooms, five temperatures
Heat, then cold, then rest. Repeat it three times and you will understand why people have done this for a thousand years.
Steam room
A tiled vault filled with eucalyptus steam. Ten minutes is plenty, and it does wonders for a cold.
Cold plunge
Filtered and chilled around the clock. Walk in slowly, breathe out long, and stay one or two minutes.
Warm pool
Body temperature water under the old arched windows. Stay as long as you like between rounds.
Quiet room
No talking and no phones. Daybeds, wool blankets and a pot of tea, refilled without asking.
Changing rooms
Showers, robes, towels, slippers and hair dryers. Bring swimwear and nothing else.
Cold water, all day long.
The plunge is filtered and chilled to 50°F around the clock. One or two minutes is all it takes.
A few house rules
They keep the bathhouse calm for everyone, including you.
Shower first
Rinse off before the pools and between rounds.
Swimwear on
The bathhouse is shared by everyone, so swimwear is required.
Quiet voices
Talk softly in the pools and not at all in the quiet room.
Phones stay in the locker
No photos past the front desk, for everyone's sake.
Drink water
There is a tap in every room. Use it between rounds.
Listen to your body
Skip the heat or the cold if you are pregnant or unwell, and ask us first.
The people who keep time
Heat opens the muscles, cold resets the nerves and rest lets both do their work. We just keep time.Ruth Abernathy, head of treatments, 19 years of massage
- Ines OkaforLead esthetician
- Marco RuizMassage therapist
- Hana KimMassage therapist
- Lena FischerBathhouse host