At the Pond: Swimming at the Hampstead Ladies' Pond

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I ended up unwittingly shouldering the burden of representation,” she says now. “I got burned out, and couldn’t really do it anymore, then you had people like Paris Lees coming through, who was a lot more able to handle the bigger platforms.”

Lifeguards are on hand to ensure everything goes smoothly, but try to look after yourself first! Are the Showers Warm?

Hampstead Heath Swimming

Traditionally, access to the ponds was free and swimmers could pay voluntary contributions. The CoLC maintains mandatory fees were necessary to sustainably fund upkeep of the ponds. There’s something wild and anarchic about the pond. It may be managed by the Corporation of London, but it remains a place of wildness and freedom, a beautiful sanctuary, and that’s very precious. One day, when they’re older, I hope to take my granddaughters there. So Mayer: ‘I am not alone: many trans and non-binary people swim in the Ladies’ Pond’ Of course, I don’t mean anything crazy. But, in the sunshine, many ladies at the Kenwood pond enjoy relaxing topless. And likewise, at the men’s pond, the guys open wear very tiny speedos. The Pond was established in the late-seventeenth century as a freshwater reservoir, fed by the subterranean River Fleet. It was opened to the public for bathing in 1925, and joins around thirty freshwater ponds dotted across Hampstead Heath, only three of which can be swum in. One of these is solely for men, but there is also a 'mixed Pond' which women are able to visit.

If you’re bringing little ones with you, please note that you are allowed to supervise a maximum of two children per adult. The kids will also be asked to complete a swim test to show their competency in the water – safety first!Open all year round you’ll only spot a few brave and dedicated swimmers in the winter months but come spring & summer in London the Hampstead Heath Bathing Ponds are filled with people wanting to go swimming at Hampstead Heath, and who can blame them! At the Pond: Swimming at the Hampstead Ladies' Pond collects together fourteen essays, each of which was written especially for this book. I already love the work of some of the contributors - Esther Freud, Margaret Drabble, Jessica J. Lee - but there were a handful whose writing I had not read before. I love thematic collections such as this; they bring together so many different views on one particular topic or location - in this case, a designated pond for women to swim in, in a patch of quiet in the heart of London.