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A hammam and day spa in Burnside

Warm stone, soft foam.

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Steam under a stone dome, a scrub with a woven mitt, a foam wash on the heated marble slab, then massage or a facial if you like, and a long rest in the cool room. Women’s days and men’s days run separately, for one or for a few friends.

Book a ritual

Four ways through the rooms.

Each ritual runs left to right through the afternoon. Its line rises into the hotter rooms and falls into the cooler ones, and every room is named at its heat: wide and heavy in the hot room, narrow and light in the cool room.

  1. The hammam.

    An hour and a half, for one or up to five friends

    1. warm room
    2. hot room
    3. the slab
    4. cool room

    The scrub and the foam on the slab, then a long rest.

  2. The hammam and a massage.

    Two and a half hours

    1. warm room
    2. hot room
    3. the slab
    4. treatment room
    5. cool room

    All of the hammam, then an hour’s massage with oil warmed in a copper jug.

  3. The hammam and a facial.

    Two and a quarter hours

    1. warm room
    2. hot room
    3. the slab
    4. treatment room
    5. cool room

    All of the hammam, then a facial: a gentle cleanse, a clay mask and cool cloths.

  4. The long afternoon.

    About four hours, from two, for two to five friends booked together

    1. warm room
    2. hot room
    3. the slab
    4. massages
    5. the cool room, until we close

    The hot room and the slab are yours alone for the first hour, then massages one after another, then the cool room for the rest of the day, with tea and a bowl of dates.

Every ritual is booked ahead for a set start time, so the rooms stay quiet.

Two and a half hours, from warm to cool.

You change into a striped cotton wrap and slippers, and sit a while in the warm room, about thirty-eight degrees, with a pot of tea and nowhere to be. When you’re ready, the hot room: forty-five degrees under the dome, wet air, light falling through the small glass lenses, twenty minutes or so on the warm ledge with a copper bowl of water beside you. Then the slab, warmed from underneath to about forty degrees. One of us scrubs your arms, back and legs with a woven mitt, slowly, around your wrap, and your skin comes up smooth. Then the foam: warm water and olive-oil soap in a cotton bag, drawn through the air and poured over you until the marble disappears, then rinsed away with bowls of warm water. Your skin feels soft and very clean. If you’ve chosen a massage or a facial, it comes next, in the treatment room. And then the cool room: a day bed, linen, cold water with mint, a few dates, and no clock on the wall.

A woven mitt, a block of olive-oil soap, a cotton bag and a copper bowl on wet marble, striped towels behind
The mitt is yours to take home. The soap is made with olive oil.

Under the dome, forty-five degrees, and the air is wet.

The hot room: small glass lenses in the plaster dome throwing spots of daylight on the wet marble slab

The dome is plain lime plaster, lit through small glass lenses set into it. You sit on the warm stone ledge for as long as suits you, about twenty minutes, with water always within reach. The door is never locked; step out into the warm room whenever you like.

Then the slab, warmed from underneath to about forty degrees: the scrub, and the foam.

A low heap of white soap foam along the front of the heated marble slab, a woven mitt and a block of olive-oil soap beyond it
Foam on the heated slab. The foam from the top of the page, on the same slab, as it is now.
A treatment room: a covered bed with a striped towel, a copper jug on a stone shelf, light through a linen curtain

Massage and facials, in a room of their own.

Massage
An hour, at the pressure you choose, with oil warmed in a copper jug. No scent unless you ask, and you stay under a warm cotton cover throughout.
Facial
Forty-five minutes: a gentle cleanse, a clay mask and cool cloths, and your skin feels clean and soft.

On women’s days every one of us is a woman; on men’s days, a man.

Women Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday. Men Monday, Wednesday, Saturday.

On Fridays we close to clean the stone.

The whole house changes over with the day, so you share the rooms only with other women or other men, and with the team for that day. We’re open from ten until six; the last ritual starts at three, and the long afternoon at two.

Stay as long as you like.

The cool room: low day beds with linen and striped towels between stone columns, a jug of mint water on a low table

The cool room is kept at about twenty-four degrees, with the shutters half closed. Day beds with linen covers, a light blanket, cold water with mint and a bowl of dates. Nobody comes to move you on; the cool room is yours until we close.

Bring nothing.

We lend the wrap, a towel, slippers and a comb; there are lockers and a hairdryer. The woven mitt is yours to keep, with a sliver of the soap wrapped in paper. Come with clean skin and no oils or creams, eat lightly beforehand, and arrive fifteen minutes early.

My first time in a hammam?
We walk you through each room and tell you what comes next.
Does the wrap stay on?
Yes, in every room; the scrub and the foam are done around it.
What if the heat is too much?
Step out into the warm room whenever you like; the door is never locked.
How will my skin feel?
Soft, smooth and very clean.

Book a quiet afternoon.

Tell us the ritual and the day, and we’ll come back to you with a time.

Which day

The house changes over with the day: women on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, men on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

How many
1

Timing, a first visit, a preference for pressure. Please leave out anything about your health; we’ll talk in person.