A 16-person wood-fired sauna with two plunge pools is coming to Clitterhouse Playing Fields. Our Yard says it will open Thursday to Sunday, with no date yet.

A community sauna with a 16-person wood-fired sauna caravan and two plunge pools is coming to Clitterhouse Playing Fields in Cricklewood. It will be run by Our Yard, the not-for-profit that operates the café and garden at Clitterhouse Farm, with Hello Sunshine Sauna.

Our Yard’s Cricklewood Sauna page says it is “coming soon in 2026” and will open from Thursday to Sunday. It has not yet given an opening date or session prices, and bookings are not open.

Barnet Council, which owns the playing fields, approved the lease for the sauna on 27 May 2026. Its list of officer decisions records approval “to enter into the lease with Our Yard to enable them to operate a sauna at Clitterhouse Playing Fields close to their café operation in the former farm buildings”. The council published that list in October.

What will be there

The sauna garden sits in the woodland inside the playing fields. Our Yard lists:

  • a 16-person wood-fired sauna caravan
  • two plunge pools and cold showers
  • single-sex and gender-neutral changing tents, and a compost loo
  • a communal fire bowl and chill-out space

Everything is outdoors. The garden has a tarp for rain and covered changing areas, and its fencing screens it from the rest of the park.

Sessions and prices

Our Yard plans three kinds of session:

  • Standard sessions of 60 or 90 minutes, with up to an extra hour afterwards for tea by the fire.
  • Slow Sessions of three hours, when food can be ordered from the café.
  • Family sessions, with forest-school-style play and crafts for children aged 5 and over while their parents use the sauna, led by DBS-checked staff.

Private hire of the whole garden, for up to 20 people, starts at £120 for 90 minutes. Our Yard says sauna users will get 10% off at its café. It has not published prices for ordinary sessions yet.

What it means for you

  • Where: enter Clitterhouse Playing Fields by the metal kissing gate on Claremont Road, NW2 1AP, walk into the fields and bear right into the woodland.
  • Access: Our Yard says the sauna and the toilet are up several steps and are not accessible for wheelchair users.
  • What to bring: two towels and flip-flops. Most people wear swimwear, and Our Yard says more modest clothing is fine.
  • To hear when it opens: Our Yard has a mailing list on its sauna page. Private hire enquiries go to cricklewoodsauna@gmail.com.

The picture above was taken at a Hello Sunshine summer festival, not at Clitterhouse. Our Yard says its current photos are “for illustrative purposes only”.