I’m face down on a hot wooden bench, in a dimly lit steam room. To my side, a large, hairy man dressed in swimming trunks opens the door of a deep stove that resembles a pizza oven. Inside, red-hot metal glows at 700ºC. He throws in a ladle of cold water, which explodes into steam.

Tucked away on a quiet little back street, the traditional Russian Spa in Shoreditch, Banya No.1, offers a truly authentic take on the Banya experience. It’s all about the sauna, and you are assured of getting hot and sweaty. Most guests come to try the Parenie treatment which is set in the specially designed sauna.

Banya No.1 – Hoxton is a traditional Russian spa, located on Micawber Street, a 5 minute walk from Old Street tube station. RBJ and I were invited by Banya No.1 to enjoy an afternoon at the spa, accompanied by a traditional “parenie” and scrub treatment. Having never been to a banya before, I had no

Forget the fry-ups and the beer. Here are six ways to sample the city’s more wholesome ways to eat, relax and travel around. But the visitor to Britain is more at risk. Every hostelry, from rural B&Bs to five-star hotels, offers the full English; at the former, you will be asked the night before how

From chocolate making to Sky Diving, ‘I Tried…‘ has seen me take on various different experiences during 2018 as part of my mission to ‘Say Yes’. This week saw me heading to central London, to try my first ever Russian Spa at Banya No.1 which ended up being unforgettable for all the right reasons. So,

Hanging out at a Rainbo event a few months ago my beautiful friend Alice told me she and her husband Pete were going on a hot date that evening to a Russian spa “where you wear and felt hat and they beat you with birch leaves”. Sign me up! I cried, and the next week

A haunt of Bolshoi ballerinas, models and actresses alike, Banya No.1 is somewhat of a coveted establishment among those in the know. Unassumingly located in Clerkenwell, this Russian bathhouse is much more than just a sauna. In fact, the owner, Andrei, proclaims sauna a dirty word to his ears! A true Banya No.1 experience generally

On our tour through Secret London and discovering new hidden gems we stumbled upon London’s first Russian bathhouse, Banya No.1. Located in North London this bathhouse and spa known only amongst the innovation hunters and the Eastern European clientele is becoming a hot new craze. When we first heard of Banya we instantly wanted to

We paid a visit to Banya No. 1 in London’s Hoxton to experience this traditional and much-loved Russian wellbeing therapy. Not for the faint-hearted, it takes a few moments to acclimatise both body and brain to the fiercely hot air and the slightly hysterical sight of a burly Russian chap, stripped to the waist save

I am not one for spa’s and massages but when I heard about Banya No.1 Russian traditional bathhouse who gives guests a treatment like no other of slapping you with leaves I just had to go along and check out their signature treatment parenie. I attended on a complimentary experience along with some other community

If you were to find yourself, as I did, prostrate and naked on a bench in an infernal steam sauna, your face mashed into a pile of birch leaves as a hulking Russian banschik beats you with bundles of oak branches, you might question your life choices — which is precisely the point of the

Anyone who’s been following Girl on the River for a while will know I am a passionate convert to saunas and their beneficial effects, ever since I raced in Finland a couple of years ago and a lakeside sauna session transformed me from a wobbly, aching, potentially-injured mess to good as new. Since then I’ve