Historic England has added a Finnish Sauna located in Kent to its National Heritage List for England. The sauna will now enjoy protection via Grade II listing.
The sauna itself is a prefabricated sauna and was placed in the Olympic Village in Richmond Park during the 1948 Olympics by the Finnish team. Following the Olympic Games, it was moved to the Reed Paper Mill in Aylesford in 1949 before settling at its present location in Aylesford, Kent, in 1957.
It has been listed for both historical and architectural reasons. According to the official listing of the structure:
The 1948 Olympic Games were the first to be held since the end of World War II and, because of the poor economic climate and continuing rationing, very few new buildings were constructed. Male athletes were housed in a former army camp at Richmond Park which is where they placed their (now traditional) sauna. It was gifted to Reed Paper Mill by the Finnish team, as the team used the Mill's sports facilities to train in and the Mill had pre-exiting links to Finland through wood pulp imports.
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