The reality is that there are relatively few prominent cultural commentators on gender in the UK. But as Dr Sophie Lewis claims, when speaking to VICE, they present a united front. She says that they have risen through the ranks together and have longstanding relationships of some kind with each other. “It’s obviously easy to overstate this because there are structural factors I think as to why the ideological terrain is the way it is, but it’s also just because they’re all mates: Julie Bindel, Suzanne Moore, Julie Burchill. These are – in some cases erstwhile working class and radical – highly educated journalistic privileged people. They’re defending each other and doubling down, partly because of the interpersonal ties and also because British class society’s particular texture amplifies the echo chamber element of it.” I used to know the Heath so well, but on my last visit to the pond I managed to get myself thoroughly lost. There was a joy in this as well as a sadness. All walks on the Heath are beautiful, and in the resplendent summer of 2018 they were more beautiful than ever, and there was no danger of losing oneself for long. I wandered along paths and avenues and past many a vast and fallen oak lying hugely on its side.

I found that a lot of ladies sunbathe topless in the grassy area of the ladies bathing ponds on Hampstead Heath as it’s completely covered by trees during the summer. Without wanting to sound too self-pitying, I’ve been targeted very badly in the name of feminism.”– Shon Fayeja siis on keset Londoni linna, Hampstead Heathi pargis selline peidetud aare - tiik, puude vahel, mudase põhjaga (räägitakse. ei ole mul õnnestunud seda põhja katsuda), kalade, veelindude, kiilide ja muu juurdekuuluvaga. päris metsajärv see muidugi ei ole, seal on aed ümber ja väravas tuleb pilet osta ja vetelpääste kontrollib, mitu inimest korraga ujuda saab. dušš jm infrastruktuur on ka, aga üsna tagasihoidlik. ja see kõik on reserveeritud naistele (keelatud on mehed, lapsed, koerad ja transistorraadiod). meeste tiik ja segatiik on samas pargis ka olemas, aga need ei ole üldse samasugused. Yes, there are cold showers at the ponds. These are not showers like you find in leisure centres though and are very basic outdoor ones. Are there Changing Facilities at Hampstead Ponds?

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. No, the facilities at all of the ponds are pretty basic. Don’t expect any swanky leisure centre facilities here. The showers are cold, and the changing rooms are standard. But, despite this, they are totally useable and very useful! How Cold Are Hampstead Ponds? Yes, despite the mud and cold water, it is safe to swim in Hampstead Ponds. All 3 swimming ponds have lifeguards and people have been swimming in them since at least the 1970’s. Recent work has been done on the ponds to ensure their safety. Of course, when the water is cold you have to take cold water swimming precautions to ensure your own safety from cold water swimming.

Volunteer to swim

One of my favourite elements of this collection was the way in which it spans every season; indeed, it is split into four sections, which denote each season. Swimming is something which I always love reading about - and doing, although I must admit that I am more of a fair weather woman - and to be able to view the same place in so many different weathers was wonderful. I shivered slightly when a couple of the authors wrote about the lifeguards having to break the surface ice during the winter, and the way in which around 150 hardy women still decide to swim regularly during the season. Mayhew seems sincerely perturbed by the scale of publicity it got, attributing it to the high-profile women who use the ponds. “It was something that was whipped up out of nothing, really, out of a trivialisation and a really uncompassionate desire to make headlines. I would prefer not to see that being whipped up again, because there are people out there who appear to have nothing better to do than to try to make other people’s lives more uncomfortable and painful, which I think is despicable.” Once you’re in the water you’re accepted by nature. You’re in it, and part of it. My children love Parliament Hill Lido, and I’m sure they’re right, but it’s an artificial construct. In the Ladies’ Pond you’re on nodding acquaintance with the wildlife. I remember swimming past a nest and watching a coot bearing a gift in its beak – a leaf or something equally pathetic. Its mate was sitting on her eggs. As he offered it to her, the strained politeness on her face made me laugh out loud. 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.”

In her teens my daughter became a much stronger swimmer than I ever was, and she often went to the pond with her friends, but I usually went alone, with a book and sometimes a sandwich. In the 70s, some of us sunbathed topless, which was officially frowned upon, though the lifeguards usually turned a blind eye. I went once or twice with an older lesbian friend who had once been a Cistercian nun, and, briefly, a nudist: I don’t think she liked swimming but she liked the ambience, with its strange mixture of permissiveness and purity. But I loved to lower myself down the rungs of the ladder and launch myself into the silky waters of the pond. There was something magical about the unplumbed depths, the moorhens, the dragonflies, the waterlilies, the willows, the floating rings and rafts.

Water temperature

There was something magical about the unplumbed depths, the moorhens, the dragonflies, the waterlilies, the willows, the floating rings and rafts . . .' Make sure you have a towel and warm clothing for afterwards. Sip a hot beverage, and warm up with plenty of layers. 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’ Yes, there are changing areas and cubicles at each pond and separate male and female changing at the mixed Pond. Yes, there are cold showers at Highgate Men's Pond and Hampstead Mixed Pond whilst there are hot showers at Kenwood Ladies' Pond and at Parliament Hill Lido.

kõigist neist lugudest jäi mu jaoks enim kõlama... naise suhe ta enda kehaga läbi elu ja aastate. ja veega. kõik need kirjeldused, mis tunne täpselt on sellesse vette astuda või hüpata, mismoodi tundub esimene ja mismoodi järgmised tõmbed, kuidas kirvendab välja tulles nahk ja kuidas täpselt kleepuvavõitu vesi sellelt maha voolab (see vee kleepumise teema on läbiv! ei ole ta nii kleepuv midagi mu meelest, tavaline järvevesi. aga eks see ongi tavalisest basseiniveest erinev). kuidas talvel tuleb ujumiseks vahel jäässe rada sisse murda ja suvel tuleb peale tohutu talveigatsus. ja peaaegu mitte keegi ei jäta mainimata mõnd kohtumist udusulis pardipoegadega või etteheitva pilguga haigrut, kes sind mingi puunoti pealt jälgib. Lots of people have stopped going so their memories of the place aren’t sullied,” says activist Alix Lemkin, who co-convenes the Save Our Ponds campaign run by Forum ‘71, which has held protests against the charges all year. She swam in the ponds every day for 30 years and refuses to under the new regime, in solidarity with friends who have struggled during the pandemic and can’t afford to pay.Hampstead Heath Swimming Ponds are an institution in the village of Hampstead and it feels like it’s all about wild outdoor swimming at the moment, so there is no better place to visit for wild swimming in London than the Hampstead ponds! 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 Ladies’ bathing ponds on Hampstead Heath are a London institution, whether it’s sunny or snowy, so what better way to immortalise them than with a book?’ – Red