The rise and rise of the Melbourne bathhouse

The ancient Greeks were all over it, the Japanese have long been advocates, and now Melburnians are realising the joys of soaking in a bathhouse.

In 2021, Freya Berwick opened Sense of Self in a former industrial warehouse in Collingwood with a heated mineral pool, sauna, cold plunge pool and hammam; since then, a swath of other bathhouses have opened across the city.

Berwick says people are seeking out healthier lifestyles and ways to connect with people, which communal bathhouses can provide.

“I think people are looking for alternatives to the pub or, going back further, the church,” she says. “Historically, we had places where we would convene and connect, and the increase in social media sort of disrupted that because we have different ways of connectedness through our phones.”

Bathhouses are not a new phenomenon in Melbourne – Turkish baths were part of the design of the Melbourne City Baths in 1903 – but Berwick says they are resonating with people again in a technological age that can be isolating.

“People are actively seeking real-life places to connect,” she says. “But also looking for better ways to look after themselves, and so going to the pub or something like that isn’t always what they’re looking for any more. We do see a lot of people coming through here, particularly in groups of two, but bigger groups as well, and they’re catching up.”

On Friday afternoon at Soak Bathhouse in South Yarra, nurses Anna Barker and Ella Hayden were spending part of their rostered day off deep in discussion in the heated mineral pool.

They’ve been to a few bathhouses around Melbourne, but aren’t quite convinced it’s an alternative to the pub.

“We’d probably go here and go to the pub as well,” Barker says.

Alexis Dean opened the first Soak Bathhouse with her husband on the Gold Coast during the pandemic. They have since expanded across Australia, opening a South Yarra bathhouse in June after a build that cost millions.

Dean says: “It’s very much a social space where you can have a conversation and you can connect with the person that you came with, or you might meet new people in the bathhouse and have a chat with them.

“That’s really this social wellness that we’re seeing coming through, and things like COVID and that isolation showed us how awful we feel when we don’t have social wellness.”

Dean says there is increased demand for bathhouses in urban environments, so they can be used as part of day-to-day life rather than having to make a special trip out of town.

“People are moving away from some of the traditional ways that they bonded with people, which may have been very alcohol-dependent,” she says.

As alcohol consumption declines among young people, Dean says people are looking for new ways to socialise.

“Bathhouses are a beautiful blend of both a wellness activity and a social activity,” she says. “You feel great when you come from it, but you’ve also had that opportunity to catch up with a friend, and where you may have previously done that at a pub or at a cafe, you’re now able to do that in a bathhouse.”

Soak has four bathhouses around Australia, plus a second site in Melbourne under construction. Sense of Self is also expanding to Surry Hills in Sydney next year, with a site double the size of the Melbourne bathhouse at almost 1200 square metres.

Berwick also wants to open a second Sense of Self bathhouse in Melbourne’s south, but has not found the right building yet.

“I’m getting contacted constantly to open in the bottom of apartment buildings,” she says.

Berwick says commercial buildings in particular are keen to offer a bathhouse or wellness space in their basement to attract people back to the office.

The rise of wellness culture may have fuelled the bathhouse boom, but both Berwick and Dean believe bathhouses are here to stay.

“We try really hard to resist trends and to really focus on long-term, just being here for a long while and being a genuine place for people around us to come and get their rest and reconnection needs met,” Berwick says.

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