Now I’ve been to a fair few spas in my time, but nothing quite like this one. If you’ve never tried a Russian Banya, you’re in for a treat. Tucked away down an unremarkable side street in Hoxton, London’s first Russian spa Banya No.1 will change your mindset on spas for good. Based very much […]
Benedict Cumberbatch’s turn as Greville Wynne – the British engineer who helped MI6 smuggle secret intel out of Soviet Russia – in The Courier has shone a light on London’s Cold War past. While the USSR and KGB might be gone, our capital still has a few souvenirs from the era – not to mention […]
Tired of London and you’re tired of life, the saying goes. Feeling a bit lacklustre about your newfound freedom? This Russian Banya experience will reignite your passion for the city (and all its… eccentric offerings) while conveniently making it feel like you’ve escaped to Moscow. Added bonus, it’ll pep you up for any events filling […]
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. […]
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 […]