Sauna morning raves are sweeping New York, with London’s answer being Peckham’s Sauna Social Club, which offers “ambient sauna” events held on Friday and Saturday nights, where DJs soundtrack the session. Visitors can chill on sofas between sauna and cold plunge spells, with mushroom tea and low-alcohol beers served. It’s undoubtedly a sober curious generation’s answer to a night out. Why shouldn’t this lead to a few romantic matches?

When I visit, I’m told that they are considering adding a solo sauna event to their already exciting roster – which already offers “social” sauna slots and yoga-infused “wellbeing” slots in addition to its “ambient” option. The potential solo sauna sessions would not explicitly be for dating, but admittedly would certainly further lend itself to that kind of pursuit.

You could also say there’s a sauna for everyone, with many throwing sessions for non-binary and trans members of the community to give individuals a safe space, and others including “grief saunas” as a way for queer and non-queer people to come together and process trauma.

Whether they’re built on city rooftops, in old public baths or under a railway arch, these saunas are providing a space to meet, sweat and forge connections across generations. My friend tells me a local man gave her florist recommendations for her Grandma’s birthday at a sauna in Devon. Another befriended a retired lady from Norway with a Moomin towel.

Sophie Milligan/@sophie.making.stuff

Jamie and Olivia, who own Cheltenham’s woodland Scenic Sauna, tell GLAMOUR that they’ve seen a true community build since they opened the sauna. Customers have started WhatApp chats to plan trips together, and the word community itself no longer feels like “a meaningless word, over marketed and limp”.

“Genuine friendships have formed and the most potent thing is these friendships are not formed around wealth or status but around the way they feel together in the sauna,” they say. “How they feel when they talk and see each other, without phones, social media or the hangings of modern life.

“Everyone meets the same in the sauna and the ice. We all struggle and bond over it. Those connections feel so simple yet profound. We see it every week. More and more people being stripped back to their core humanity by the hot and the cold and bonding over it.”

So in an age where online dating, swiping and finding feels increasingly daunting and isolating, perhaps the community and connection provided by a sauna session is an excellent new one to meet a romantic match. Steamy.