A West Park ritual
We could have opened anywhere. We opened in a quiet corner of a Leeds rugby club. Here is the long answer to why.
Most outdoor saunas are rural. There is a reason — the land is cheaper, the planning is easier, the trees are already there. The trade-off is that nobody can get to them on a Tuesday after work.
We wanted both. The calm of an outdoor site, and the practicality of a Leeds postcode. The lookouts that work for that combination are not on a map; we found ours in a corner of West Park Rugby Club in Bramhope, fifteen minutes from central Leeds and a world away from it.
The grounds were perfect. Mature sycamores screen the spa from the rugby pitch. The slope of the land already gives the cabins their lines. There is a long, level stretch where the tiled floor wanted to be. We barely had to argue with the site.
The decision to host the spa on a rugby club grounds is unusual. We like the unusualness of it. The two cultures fit together better than you'd expect — both are about heat, cold, contact, recovery. The club has been generous with the space and the welcome. We have tried, in return, to be quiet neighbours.
The car park is small on purpose. The signage is small on purpose. We don't want passers-by; we want bookings. Walk-ins would change the place, and we have no intention of letting them.
If you grew up here, you'll recognise the road. If you didn't, you'll recognise the feeling — that you have driven, briefly, out of one kind of day and into another. That is the point of the place.
Bramhope. LS16 8BX. A rugby club, a cluster of cabins, three plunges, the sky.
Eddie
Brand & Strategy Lead, Northern Ritual