The Bath House – Banya London

Set inside a Grade II-listed former bank opposite Buckingham Palace, The Bath House – Banya London combines old-building grandeur and oak-lined heat with enough polish to feel more Belgravia than brutalist sweatbox. The whole thing revolves around the hot-cold-hit-repeat rhythm. You sweat it out in the banya, plunge into icy water, then head to your table in the restaurant for Eastern European fare, from plates of pickles to bowls of dumplings, alongside healthy house-made juices or ice-cold shots of voddy. The signature treatment here is parenie, where a banshik works with bundles of soaked oak, birch and eucalyptus leaves to push heat and fragrant steam across your body in a way that’s part massage, part ritual. Come for the heat therapy, stay for the food, and leave wondering why every spa doesn’t involve beating around (with) the bush and carb loading in between.