Building on the Built: Common Waters Panel Discussion

This autumn, as part of our ongoing talks series, we will host our first-ever panel discussion. This event will explore the history and renaissance of bathhouses in London, bringing together renowned experts for an evening of discussion and debate. Topics will include the enduring importance of accessible civic infrastructure, contemporary bathing culture and the potential to reappropriate existing buildings and infrastructure as spaces for wellness, recreation and social interaction.

Tuckey Design Studio director Jonathan Tuckey will be joined by leading design curator and bathing expert Jane Withers, Director of Jane Withers Studio, Gabrielle Reason, Director of the British Sauna Society and Chris Romer-Lee, Co-founder of Swimmable Cities, Future Lidos and Thames Baths.

Alongside the panel discussion Tuckey Design Studio will also host an exhibition entitled Common Waters: An Exploration of Social Bathing which will trace the changing face of bathing in Britain through archival photography, drawings, objects and publications.

The exhibition considers the bathhouse not simply as a place of hygiene or recreation, but as a civic space; somewhere to meet, pause, recover and experience water collectively. At the centre of the display is a new bathhouse proposal for Bankside, London by Tuckey Design Studio, developed with Jane Withers Studio. The project asks what a permanent publicly operated bathhouse might mean in a city where access to water is increasingly shaped by climate change and the pressures of urban life. It proposes bathing as a form of shared infrastructure, one that can support physical, spiritual and social well-being while creating new relationships with the city and its waterways.

The exhibition and panel discussion will take place at Tuckey Design Studio, 58 Milson Road, London W14 OLB in West London, at 7pm on Wednesday 14th October 2026.