A sauna and cold plunge club is opening on Upper Richmond Road this spring. Pulse Club, which opened its first site near Fulham Broadway three weeks ago, is fitting out the former Heba Pilates gym at 228 Upper Richmond Road and opens in mid-to-late April.
The venue will have a communal Finnish sauna for up to 25 people and four cold plunge pools, two chilled to 3–4°C and two at around 10°C. Sessions run for 50 minutes, 7am to 9pm daily.
Kieran Beeson is behind the venture and launched the Fulham site after noticing that sauna culture, long established across northern and central Europe, had not really landed in London. “If you go to the continent, not just Scandinavia, places like Dublin, Lisbon, all over Germany, these places are incredibly popular. We seem to be a little bit behind the curve here.” The early numbers suggest the appetite is there. “In Fulham we’ve had 400 customers in the last three weeks.”
The Putney site will run open access sessions alongside guided meditation, breathwork, silent sessions, women-only mornings, a new mums format, and a first-timers introduction. The sauna is a traditional Finnish electric heater, fired with stones and fed with water to produce steam. The Aufguss ceremony, a European ritual involving scent and towel-waving to circulate the heat, is part of the programme. Alcohol is not permitted.
The sauna-and-cold-plunge ritual is centuries old in Finland and the Nordic countries, where it has long been treated as a social practice rather than a solo one. The pattern at Pulse Club follows the same logic: heat in the sauna, then cold in the plunge, repeated in cycles. The heat relaxes muscles and raises the heart rate; the cold brings it back down sharply. First-timers often describe the cold plunge as the part they dreaded most and enjoyed most. The 50-minute session is designed to allow two or three cycles at a natural pace, with time to sit, cool down, and go again.
Pricing starts with an introductory offer of three sessions for £30. Founding memberships, capped in tiers, run from £99 to £139 a month and include unlimited sessions, priority booking, and two guest passes. Drop-in rates are also available. The full price list is at pulseclubsauna.com.
The design of the space is social as much as physical. “People come with friends, people come to socialise as much as anything.”
The stretch of Upper Richmond Road he has chosen already has Phoenix Yoga and Anytime Fitness for neighbours. “It seems like fitness and wellness is pretty high on people’s agenda around here.” Besson has a background in property and became a regular sauna user two to three years ago. “Every time I go, I sleep better. It’s just be good to be involved in something that people can leave feeling better than when they came.”
The former Heba Pilates Gym already had changing rooms and shower facilities, which made the site practical for conversion. Besson plans to expand further when the Putney and Fulham sites are up and running.
Details and founding membership information are on the Pulse Club website. The opening date will be confirmed closer to launch.
“The whole idea is trying to make it as accessible as we can for everybody. No matter what you look like, how old you are, where you’re from, the idea is to come and get the benefits.”
Pulse Club will open on Upper Richmond Road next month.
