Gay sauna hidden

‘Space is a pressing matter and it matters which bodies, where and how, press up against it. Most important of all is who these bodies are with: in what historical and actual spatial configuration they locate and define themselves.’ Elspeth Probyn. [1]

In I was commissioned to design Pleasuredrome which would depart on to become, arguably, London’s most visited, gay and bi-sexual male sauna [Figure 1]. It is the only venue of this type to be continuously open 24 hours of the day, seven days a week, every day of the year. It is also the only interior of this type to receive recognition from the D&AD awards (annual awards for the design industry). A clandestine space, inaccessible to the general adj, the entry criteria is based upon age, gender and sexual orientation. Customers use the space as restaurant, bar, psuedo-hotel, cinema, club, washhouse, spa and Grindr meet-up joint, staying for up to 12 hours at a time. It is a sexual space where encounters are nurtured and stimulated. A hidden world, always populated, within an island site under a railway, part of