THE KENWOOD LADIES' POND ASSOCIATION
The City has organized a lifeguard training session at the Ladies’ Pond next Wednesday, 3 July.
The Ladies’ Pond and the meadows will be closed from 10.30am until 1.30pm on that day. The Lido and the Mixed Pond will remain open as usual during this time.
This year’s Highgate Festival, 14-23 June, will include a small exhibition on the history of the Ladies’ Pond at the Omved Gardens gallery. The director of the festival, KLPA member Alicia Pivaro, is inviting swimmers to share their thoughts about and memories of the Pond on a ‘Pond Postcard’ which may be included as part of the display and will then be donated to the KLPA archive.
There is a supply of postcards attached to the KLPA noticeboard in the changing room and beside it an orange folder in which to ‘post’ completed cards. Alternatively you can download a card here and, if you can’t get to pond, feel free to scan and email your message to klpamailbox@gmail.com with the subject line POND POSTCARDS so that we can forward it to Alicia.
KLPA members were immensely saddened to learn earlier this week of the recovery of the body of a swimmer from the Men’s Pond. Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the deceased to whom we send our sincere condolences.
We have been pleased to welcome swimmmers from the Men’s Pond between 07.00 and 09.00 each morning while their pond has been closed. This arrangement will continue until the City of London are in a position to reopen the Men’s Pond.
The Men’s Pond has been closed since the afternoon of 1 June with police searching for a missing person. The pond will remain closed until the search has been completed.
To reciprocate the generosity of the Men’s Pond in welcoming us to swim with them early in the morning when our pond has been closed, male swimmers will be allowed to swim in the Ladies’ Pond from 07.00-09.00 on Monday 3 June and later in the week if the closure continues. Last entry to the water for men will be 09.00 and they will be asked to be off the premises no later than 09.30. After 09.00 men will be directed to the Mixed Pond and the Lido.
Many of us will have enjoyed seeing ‘The Ponds’ on television on Monday evening 20 May but the KLPA was surprised and delighted to receive an email from a gentleman named John Thurley telling us how much the film meant to him. His mother, Sylvia Mary Thurley (née Corfield), who died last year at the age of 93, was a regular swimmer at the Ladies Pond throughout her life and he wanted us to know how much she would have enjoyed the film and how much she would have appreciated us “keeping the ponds alive”.
Sylvia (seen in the photo above) was born in northwest London in 1925 and was “very sporty” and “competitive” with a passion for swimming. Although she often swam in local swimming pools, Kenwood Ladies’ Pond was her favourite place and as a young woman she was featured in the local newspaper “breaking the ice to train”.
John says that Sylvia loved the Heath so much that “her wish was always to go home”, and that when she died he scattered her and his father’s ashes on Kite Hill overlooking St Anne’s where they were married.
John no longer lives in London but plans to bring his family to swim later this summer.
The Ponds film will be broadcast on BBC Four TV on Monday, 20 May, at 9.00pm, under the title Swimming through the Seasons: The Hampstead Ponds. This is a shorter, edited version of the original film that many of you will have seen in the cinema. It will also be available on the BBC’s iPlayer for 28 days following transmission.
For more information see the BBC website here.
This week The Guardian has published another article about the benefits of exposure to cold and cold water swimming (in general and on Hampstead Heath). As the archive photograph above illustrates, the women of the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond knew this long ago . . .
In anticipation of the summer season, the City has organized a lifeguard training session at the Ladies’ Pond next Wednesday, 1 May. This means that the Pond and the meadows will be closed from 10.30am until 2.00pm.
As a gesture of goodwill, the City is offering Ladies’ Pond swimmers the opportunity to swim at the Lido between 10.30am and 12.30pm (when the pool closes) without charge, just mention to the cashier that you are there because the Ladies’ Pond is closed.
There is a small exhibition of stills from The Ponds film and some other ponds related items at Burgh House, New End Square, Hampstead from now until 25 August. More information here.
P.S. As a bonus, at the moment the museum also has extraordinarily beautiful wisteria in bloom!
In association with the Royal Shakespeare Company
Out of Water
A new play by ZOE COOPER
The Orange Tree Theatre in RIchmond is opening a new play about ‘wild swimming, gender and how we define who we are’ and is offering 10% off tickets for KLPA members. Full details of the play and the offer can be found here.