Month: April 2023

We have now received a further update from the City of London Corporation about a date for the Accessibility Works to start at the Ladies’ Pond.  Work will start on Monday 17 April 2023 and it will be necessary to close the Ladies’ Pond that morning so that fencing and the temporary toilet block can be installed.  The Ladies’ Pond is expected to re-open at 2 pm on Monday.

The works are expected to last about 6 weeks.  During this time bathing will commence at 6.45 am each morning to allow for a quiet swim, before contractors start work on site at 7.30 am. In addition pond wristbands can be used at Parliament Hill Lido by swimmers who prefer a quieter swim, away from the construction work, at other times of the day.  Lido opening hours and details here.

Further updates can be found on the City’s Twitter Feed here.

If you have any concerns or feedback whilst the work is taking place, please send these to the City via hh-swimming@cityoflondon.gov.uk (and copy to klpamailbox@gmail.com so that we can monitor any responses from the City).

Please do take into account that the Ladies’ Pond will be operating as a building site during these works, (even if in a specific area) and all members of the public will be expected to comply with any site safety instructions.  The fenced off areas will be out of bounds to anyone not authorised to be on the building site.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Work is about to commence at all of the Heath swimming ponds in order to improve access to facilities and male contractors will be on site at the Ladies’ Pond from 11th April.  This work is expected to take around six weeks to complete, and will finish around 22 May.

On 11th April, contractors will be delivering materials and setting up screened fencing and temporary toilets – it may be necessary to suspend swimming for part or all of that day to avoid any difficulties this disruption will cause – we will let you know nearer the date of opening times on 11th April.

After that and for the duration of the works, swimming will still be open, with the work area and a works access path screened off from the meadows and pond. Access to the pond will be around he side nearest to the outside shower, and the indoor changing areas will still be available.

Work will start at 7.30 am, though the Heath Management are hoping to push this back to 7.45 when the work has settled in a bit. To facilitate women swimming without men on site, the pond will open at 6.45am allowing 45 minutes of quiet and uninterrupted time before work commences.

The existing toilets are part of the refurbishment, so temporary toilets will be situated in the upper meadow, facing the gazebo. They will be completely different to the temporary toilets last summer and will be cleaner and maintained regularly.

CoL is being as helpful as they can be in the circumstances and state that contractors will be fully briefed on respecting swimmers’ privacy and keeping any movement between work and the entrance gate to the minimum necessary to facilitate the work.

“The main aim is to get this work finished as quickly as possible while staying open for swimming. We want to avoid any closures so there will need to be a bit of cooperation from swimmers too.”

If you have any queries about this work, please contact the Heath Management on HH-Swimming@cityoflondon.gov.uk