Since 2024, the state protects it.

In 1948 London held the Austerity Games. The Finnish team brought its own sauna to the army camp in Richmond Park, by then an Olympic tradition. It was built of prefabricated timber panels, designed by Toivo Jäntti, one of the architects of the Helsinki Olympic Stadium, and made by Puutalo Oy.

The Finns trained at the sports grounds of the Reed paper mill, which imported wood pulp from Finland. When the Games ended, as a token of gratitude, they gave Reed their sauna. In 1949 it was put up again at the mill in Aylesford, by 1957 it stood in Cobdown Park, and it stayed in use as a sauna until 2020.

Over the years it was patched the practical way: an electric heater for the wood fire, felt on half the roof, and plain white tiles laid straight over the old ones in the showers. In one spot the white tiles are missing, and behind them the original 1948 floral tiles are still there. In January 2024 Historic England listed the hut at Grade II. It is thought to be the oldest surviving Olympic sauna in the world.

The Olympic flame burns for two weeks. This one burned for 72 years.

Would you ever give away your sauna?

Sources: Historic England, list entry 1487251 (2024); Kent HER DKE23366; British Sauna Society (2024).
Sounds: Freesound (CC0): Dominik_W, 231372, TRP.