Monthly Archives: January 2015

Review by Curious London: AUTHENTIC RUSSIAN R&R AT BANYA NO.1

Banya Steam room

It’s rare to experience both excitement and fear before a spa day, but Banya No.1, London’s foremost – and indeed only – Russian Spa, is a bit of a special case. I was really looking forward to experiencing an authentic banya, but I was also afraid of being stripped naked, beaten senseless with birch logs and thrown […]

Review by The Guardian – London’s first Russian bath house: full steam ahead at Banya No 1

Oak leaves, a steam room, vodka and crayfish.

The assignment was to discover the ultimate truth about hangover cures. Who does one ask about such things? I tried Andrei Fomin. After all, I reasoned, Andrei used to run nightclubs all over London – Propaganda in Wardour Street, that was him – plus he has a lot of witchy knowledge about herbs that his […]