At the Pond: Swimming at the Hampstead Ladies' Pond

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Young trans writer Shon Faye was the next to rise to prominence through the Guardian and youth media platforms like VICE and Dazed. In the mid-2010s, when she came out as trans, she felt a cautious optimism about trans rights. Debates about trans rights that typically involved a trans person on one side and someone against those rights on the other were fairly routine, both on TV and in print media. The obvious advantage to this was the obvious visibility: trans people were being seen and heard by British public.

Know your limits and leave the water if you don’t feel well or if you are advised to by the lifeguards. Created centuries ago, the Heath's chain of ponds are one of the sources of the River Fleet that runs subterraneously through London. Swimming in the Ladies' Pond's green, silty, silky waters, it's hard to avoid the feeling that you are moving through history and outside of time. Jacques worked in a series of office jobs in Brighton and watched certain gains be made around trans legal rights: the Gender Recognition Act was passed in 2004 and treatment was provided on the NHS. She asked herself: “If the government is doing us less damage, which other social institutions are doing us damage? And a lot of people hit on the media at the same time. We’d all grown up with wall-to-wall transphobia in the media and it was never seriously questioned.”A joy to read – perfect for when you need an escape from the stresses of everyday life.’ – Culturefly It was timeless, though perhaps the period it most evoked (despite the bikinis and the hippy beads) was Edwardian: it was the female equivalent of that fine bathing party scene in EM Forster’s A Room with a View, where the Reverend Mr Beebe and George Emerson and young Freddy cast off their clothes and disport themselves in a village pool in the mild landscape of Surrey. A small but wonderful collection that shares the joy of the Ladies’ Pond … At the Pond is a series of essays about a body of water but these essays are about so much more than that.’ – Outdoor Swimming Society When we look, or leap, into the frondy gymslip-green cold-as-is-good-for-you water of the Ladies’ Pond, we move through the tangles of history. We gulp down Hopkins’s spit and sweat and piss, and we step out of the water shedding Dido Belle’s skin cells, torn in her attempt to conform to her society’s narrow expectations.

There was something magical about the unplumbed depths, the moorhens, the dragonflies, the waterlilies, the willows, the floating rings and rafts . . .'A joyous collection of essays celebrating the sanctuary of the women’s pond on Hampstead Heath.’ – New Statesman Yes, there are 3 ponds dedicated to swimming which all have changing facilities, are tested for water quality, and have lifeguards on duty. 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.

There are a total of 18 ponds across Hampstead Heath, however only 3 are dedicated to swimming: Highgate Men's Bathing Pond; Kenwood Ladies' Bathing Pond and Hampstead Mixed Bathing Pond..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. see raamat on esseekogumik inimestelt, kellel daamide tiigis ujumise kogemus olemas. paljud on tõelised veteranid - mäletavad, kuidas see kõik 60ndatel oli ja/või elavad naabermajas ja/või töötavad vabatahtliku vetelpäästjana. nende lood olidki mu jaoks kõige nauditavamad. nooremate kirjutajate esseed rääkisid ehk minu maitse jaoks veidi liiga palju neist endist ja vähe ujumisest. samas, seal räägiti ära need lood, mis ju ka asjasse puutusid ja rääkimist tahtsid... näiteks abordist ja transseksuaalsusest. Lifeguards are on hand to ensure everything goes smoothly, but try to look after yourself first! Are the Showers Warm? This book of essays is divided into four seasons, beginning with winter - much like the documentary of the Hampstead Ponds which was released in the summer of 2018 and I saw at the Hampstead Everyman cinema in the winter of 2019. You don’t absolutely need to have an experience of the Hampstead Ponds or ‘wild swimming’ to be interested by this book, but it helps, I think. Although Hampstead Heath is a good place to start, there is much more to Hampstead than just the Heath.

If Hampstead seems too far for you, here’s a post on the best lidos in London! The Hampstead Heath Lido is at the bottom of Parliament Hill as in this photo, keep it in mind when visiting the Hampstead Heath Swimming Ponds! FAQ about Hampstead Heath Swimming: Do you have to pay to swim in Hampstead Ponds? Yes, there are small changing rooms but do not expect leisure centre quality. Is it safe to swim in Hampstead Ponds? Lees half-jokes: “I’m glad millennials and Gen Z get it – part of my activism now is just waiting for people to die.”

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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.” nii et päris peadpööritav paradigmamuutus oli kolida Londonisse ja avastada, et looduslikes veekogudes ujumine on brittide jaoks nii eksootiline kontseptsioon, et selle jaoks kasutatakse isegi eraldi väljendit: wild swimming. ja kui nüüd vaatama hakata, siis kust neid veekogusid võttagi. nojah, tehniliselt võttes elame saarel ja meri ei ole kunagi kaugemal kui 70 miili. praktiliselt võttes, kui mitu korda olen spetsiaalselt sõitnud mereranda ja avastanud, et ei mingit ujumist, sest mõõn. (ja üldse, mis ujumine see meres ujumine ka on.) mingid suplemiseks sobivad jõekäärud (vesi: puusani, kui mitte ainult põlvini) olen aastatega ka avastanud, järved on pigem kõik eraomanduses ja ligipääsmatud (või asuvad Lake Districtis, 300 miili kaugusel), veehoidlates ujumine rangelt keelatud. But recent remarks from attorney general Suella Braverman suggest the law is not as the City of London Corporation sees it. In a speech earlier this month, she made clear that ‘we do not operate a system of self-identification in England and Wales. But some service providers behave as if they have a legal duty to admit biological males who identify as females into women-only spaces… this is not in accordance with the law.’