Sauna Sauna is a men's sauna and cruise club on Winnington Lane, a little way out of the town centre, and it calls itself the largest gay sauna in the UK. The building has a history of its own. It was an ICI research laboratory until the mid-1990s, and a blue plaque in the entrance hall marks it as the place where polythene was discovered in 1933. Archive photographs of the laboratory hang in the same hall.
The ground floor is the sociable half. There is a large cafe bar with seating for more than eighty, a licensed bar, two saunas of different sizes, a ten-man jacuzzi and showers. The steam room is the centrepiece, low-lit, with seating and bed areas and two dark rooms tucked inside it. Outside, a secluded area has a hot tub and room to sunbathe, and it gets used for barbecues in warm weather.
Upstairs is given over to play. Lockable private cabins come in several sizes, some with mirrors, televisions, peep holes or glory holes. The named zones each work differently: Wham Bam is laid out like a row of Amsterdam windows, T2 is a maze, G Power has a large communal bed with mirrored walls, and the Pig Pens are the busiest room in the building. There is a fetish and dungeon area with slings and benches, a milking parlour with a viewing window that opens and closes, a glory hole corridor and a porn lounge. Exhibitionists can live stream to screens elsewhere in the venue so other men can come and find them.
Admission is 18 and over and ID is checked. On the way in you get a towel, condoms, lube and a locker key that doubles as your tab for anything you buy. It is men only most of the time, with a regular day for trans women, cross-dressers and their admirers, and a monthly day open to all genders and sexualities. Parking is free, next to the building, and there is plenty of it.
