Therme Manchester plans £500 million thermal wellbeing megasite by 2028

Therme Manchester was lined up as a £500 million thermal wellbeing megasite, with a 28-acre footprint and a target opening in late 2028. The project was billed as the largest bathing and wellbeing attraction in the world once complete, a scale that pushes cold-plunge and contrast-therapy culture far beyond specialist studios.

The scheme covered 65,000 square metres in interconnected glass pavilions, with another 60,000 square metres of outdoor space planned as community gardens. Therme UK said the Manchester site would anchor its wider 90:90 strategy, which aims to place 90 percent of the UK population within a 90-minute drive of a Therme location. That is the headline that matters most for access: the company is not just building a destination, it is chasing national reach.

Professor David Russell, chief executive of Therme UK, set out a thermal mix designed to pull in a broad crowd, not just hard-core recovery regulars. The offer was described as pools, thermal pools, cryotherapy, snow rooms, heat rooms and around 30 saunas, along with slides and other water-based experiences. For ice-bath readers, the important part is the packaging: cold exposure is being bundled with saunas and pools as part of one large circuit, not sold as a niche add-on.

The staffing plan pointed in the same direction. Therme said the site would require between 40 and 50 massage therapists and 30 sauna masters, suggesting a high-touch operation built around service, pace and repeat visits. That kind of labour profile is a sign the company wants a polished wellness day out, not a stripped-back bathhouse model.

Therme Manchester also reflected a bigger shift in the wellness market. By pairing low prices, high volumes and public access with a destination-style build, the company was effectively betting that heat, cold and recovery can be normalized as part of mainstream leisure. If the 90-minute-drive promise holds, the real test will be whether a mega-resort can turn cryotherapy, snow rooms and sauna circuits into something ordinary enough for people who would never walk into a specialist studio.