Summary
A prefabricated timber sauna manufactured by Finnish company Puutalo Oy (Timber Houses Limited) for the 1948 London Olympic Games. The building was first erected in the Olympic Village in Richmond Park in 1948, moved to the Reed Paper Mill in Aylesford in 1949, and to its present location (also on the former Reed site) by 1957.
Reasons for Designation
The Finnish Olympic Sauna, constructed in Richmond Park in 1948 and moved to its present location by 1957, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Historic interest:
* as the earliest surviving purpose-built Finnish sauna in England in continuous use, and thought to be the oldest surviving Olympic sauna in the world;
* as a rare surviving example of a building newly constructed for the 1948 London Olympics, the first post-war games known as the ‘Austerity Games’;
Architectural interest:
* for the largely intact exterior and the very good survival of the interior fixtures and fittings and original plan;
* as a rare surviving example in England of a prefabricated building manufactured by Puutalo Oy, a significant innovator and distributor of prefabricated timber buildings in the mid-C20, designed by noted Finnish architect Toivo Jäntti.
History
The sauna tradition is deeply established in Finnish (and Estonian) culture, its history spanning millennia of development and social integration. Early saunas were rudimentary pits covered with animal hides, but later more sophisticated wooden and stone structures were developed. Large stones were heated in a central fire, and when they reached the desired temperature, water was poured on them to create steam and increase the temperature inside the sauna to rejuvenating effect. Beyond the physical benefits of cleansing and relaxation, many Finns consider the sauna to be a sacred space of communal gathering and purification where societal bonds are forged, and decisions are made. This enduring cultural significance has led to the widespread presence of saunas in Finnish homes, public buildings and workplaces. In 2020 UNESCO inscribed Finnish sauna tradition on its List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
In the early C20 in a convergence of national pride, athleticism and cultural heritage, Finland began to promote its sporting prowess and use of sports massage and traditional saunas to enhance its international standing. In 1924 Finland provided a sauna for the Olympic Games in Paris, with Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi attributing his success to the sauna’s benefits (he won five gold medals in Paris).
The 1940 Olympics, originally scheduled first for Tokyo and then for Helsinki, were cancelled due to the outbreak of the Second World War. The first post-war games were held in London and were characterized by the difficult economic climate and rationing of the period, which led to them being known as the ‘Austerity Games’. One consequence of this was that very few new buildings were constructed: events were largely held at the pre-existing Wembley Stadium and the Empire Pool in Wembley Park, and male athletes were housed in former military camps while female competitors stayed in London colleges. The former included an army camp in Richmond Park and it was to here that the Finnish team brought their now traditional Olympic sauna, this time a prefabricated building provided by Finnish company Puutalo Oy (Timber Houses Limited). Finnish athletes also spent time training at the sports facilities of the Reed Paper Mill in Aylesford, Kent. Reed’s pre-existing links to Finland through wood pulp imports had fostered a shared appreciation for the health benefits of athletic pursuits among its employees. As a token of gratitude, after the conclusion of the Olympics the Finnish team gifted their sauna to Reed, and in 1949 it was transported to Aylesford and re-erected at the Paper Mill site. By 1957 the sauna had been relocated again to its present position in Cobdown Park, at that time still part of the Reed site. Most of the interior fixtures and fittings appear to be of 1948 although some may have been replaced in the move to the present site by 1957. It appears to have been largely unaltered since then and was in continuous use as a sauna up until 2020.
Puutalo Oy was a non-profit cooperation body of 21 companies in the Finnish timber industry that was formed in the spring of 1940 in the aftermath of the Winter War in order to enhance the industrial development, manufacture and marketing of prefabricated timber buildings. The Moscow Peace Treaty of 12 March 1940 resulted in the displacement of thousands of Finns who had previously lived on land now occupied by the Soviet Union. Developments in prefabricated timber houses had already begun in Finland in the late 1930s as part of a collaboration between an associated company, A Ahlström Oy, and architect Alvar Aalto, but the urgent need for temporary barracks during the Winter War and, subsequently, considerable numbers of new houses afterwards accelerated the prefabrication aspect of the timber industry. Puutalo’s first task was to deliver the construction of Swedish ‘gift houses’, prefabricated timber homes donated by Sweden to assist Finland’s reconstruction, but soon the company’s design office led by Jorma Järvi and Erik Lindroos began to develop its own models, delivering 300 houses to private customers in its first year. In 1943 the company was joined by architect Toivo Jäntti, who went on to draw up the plans for Puutalo’s sauna design. In addition to individual houses and barracks, Puutalo produced prefabricated terraced houses, schools, healthcare buildings, factories and saunas, manufacturing 120,000 buildings between 1940 and 1955. Only about 10,000 were constructed in Finland; most were manufactured for export, initially to Germany, Italy and Bulgaria, but exported globally from 1944. The company’s buildings are thought to be among Finland’s most geographically widespread export products, and foreign trade in the 1950s contributed significantly to the national economy despite Puutalo’s non-profit origins. In 1955 Puutalo merged with Suomen Puukäkreiden Myintyyhdistys to form Myintyyhdistys Puutalo, which diverged into new types of house design.
Toivo August Jäntti (1900-1975) graduated as an architect from the Finnish Technical University in 1928. Following study trips to several European countries and gaining experience in various architectural offices, he began work as an independent architect in 1930. His designs won several competitions in the 1930s but many were never built due to the outbreak of the Second World War. He is best known for his 1933 design, together with Yrjö Lindegren, for the Helsinki Olympic Stadium. Construction was carried out 1936-1938 but when the 1940 Olympic Games had to be cancelled the stadium was instead used to host a memorial service to those who fell in the war.
Jorma Järvi (1908-1962) and Erik Lindroos (1906-1980) first collaborated on the design of the Helsinki Central Post and Telegraph building (1934-1938). Järvi left Puutalo in 1949 to establish his own practice, designing several schools in the Helsinki region, the city’s outdoor swimming pool and the Faculty of Medicine buildings at the University of Turku. In 1959 he was elected Chairman of the Standardization Institute of the Finnish Association of Architects.
Details
A prefabricated timber sauna building designed by Toivo Jäntti and manufactured by Finnish company Puutalo Oy (Timber Houses Ltd), first assembled in Richmond Park for the Finnish Olympic team in 1948, moved to the Reed Paper Mill in 1949 and to its present site by 1957.
MATERIALS: the external walls are of prefabricated timber panel construction, and the window frames, roof structure, rainwater goods and veranda supports are also of timber. The south roof slope is covered with original wooden tiles, while the north slope is covered with felt. It is possible that original tiles survive underneath. There are two brick chimney stacks to the roof. The building stands on a solid concrete platform with a rubble batter to the edges.
PLAN: the building is rectangular on plan, with a veranda spanning half the width of the front (south) elevation and a fuel store projecting from the rear. The front entrance opens into a small lobby with the dressing room to the left, a toilet and kitchen straight ahead, and the wet room and sauna to the right.
EXTERIOR: the building is a single-storey, prefabricated timber building with a roof of two different pitches, reminiscent of a large cabin. The external walls are formed of timber panels articulated with alternating vertical boards and grooves. The south roof slope descends lower in its western half, which is carried on wooden posts to form a veranda. These posts are of square section with slightly concave surfaces and are linked by a horizontal timber handrail of circular section. The eaves are carried on timber rafters that project beyond to support the gutters, which are also of timber. The gable ends of the building and the sides of the veranda have timber bargeboards. The north roof slope at the rear of the building descends slightly lower than the front to create a lower ceiling height over the sauna room. Two brick chimney stacks with oversailing corbel courses rise from the roof ridge, one for the dressing room fireplace and the other for the sauna heater.
The fenestration comprises single-pane, timber casement windows in painted frames that stand proud of the exterior walls. The front (south) elevation has a row of six of these windows beneath the veranda and another row of three on the other side of the front door. There is a single window to the east elevation and another two to the north elevation, while the west elevation is blind. The front and rear doors are probably original and have narrow timber boards applied vertically and a small rectangular window at the top covered by mesh.
Beneath the row of six windows to the front elevation is a sign mounted in a timber frame, with red text that reads: FINNISH SAUNA BATH/ LONDON 1948 above and below the Olympic rings and a Finnish flag inscribed with the words: IV OLYMPIA.
INTERIOR: the internal walls are mostly clad with horizontal timber boards positioned at angles to one another to create textured surfaces with a sawtooth profile. The lobby, dressing room and kitchen feature original timber floor tiles beneath their carpets, and the ceilings are also of narrow timber boards. Unless otherwise noted the internal doors are of painted timber with four or five rectangular panels and are possibly not original.
The dressing room retains original timber benches along two sides that are fixed to the floor and walls, with original hooks above for clothes and towels. The fireplace in this room has been infilled with modern tiles but the timber surround and mantelpiece survive, as does the chimney breast, which is of red brick laid in English bond and steps in towards the top
The kitchen has original built-in cupboards with panelled doors set in chamfered frames, and one wall is partly of red brick laid in English bond: the rear of the dressing room chimney breast.
The wet room features vertical timber wall boards up to dado rail level, with the angled horizontal boards above as in the other rooms. The north wall is partly clad in white tiles in the hot and cold shower areas, but in one area these are missing revealing original tiles underneath. These original tiles have floral designs set in a geometric-pattern border picked out in ochre and dark grey. It is likely that many of these original tiles survive behind the modern white tiles. The floor of this room has plain tiles with a grated drainage channel across the centre of the room, and an original ceramic foot basin beneath one of the showers.
The door to the sauna room is probably original, featuring narrow, vertical timber boards and a timber rocker latch with rounded handles. The sauna room has walls clad with vertical timber boards and an exposed concrete floor with drainage channels cut in. Most of the space is occupied by a three-tiered bench of slatted timber. This is an original fixture but some of the timber elements have been replaced over time. The electric heater for the stones in the sauna is a later addition; the sauna was originally heated by a traditional wood fire as evidenced by the bricked-up opening in the rendered wall between the sauna and the former heating area in the adjacent hallway.
