THE KENWOOD LADIES' POND ASSOCIATION
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.
As many of you will have discovered since Easter Monday, the pond is open but the showers and toilets are currently closed because of drainage problems. We believe there is an obstruction somewhere in the main sewer that serves both Kenwood House and the Ladies’ Pond but, as far as we can tell, this has not been caused by anything at the pond itself. The City have asked Thames Water to deal with the matter urgently and we await further news, but we expect the restrictions to continue for at least the next 24 hours.
There is currently a petition on 38 Degrees calling on Camden Council to reject a planning application which seeks permission to develop one of the properties adjoining Millfield Lane by replacing one house with five new houses, two of which would be built directly beside Millfield Lane. If you have not already seen the petition please take a look and consider adding your signature.
Millfield Lane is the unmetalled semi-rural lane which borders the east side of Hampstead Heath and leads to the main entrance of the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond and eventually to Kenwood House. The KLPA is a member of The Friends of Millfield Lane, a community alliance which seeks to preserve and protect this environmentally sensitive area from overdevelopment.
On Saturday 6 April we have invited swimmers from the Men’s Pond for a swim and breakfast between 08.00 and 10.00. All KLPA members welcome!
Hampstead & Highgate Express, 5 March 2019
Camden New Journal, 3 January 2019
New Yorker, 1 February 2019
Guardian, review of The Ponds film, January 2019
Guardian, 27 February 2019
Guardian, 19 January 2019
The High Low podcast, 11 March 2019, (review of The Ponds film starts at approximately 15.30 into the show).
The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize is a leading international competition which celebrates and promotes the very best in contemporary portrait photography from around the world.
Amongst the fifty-seven works from the 2018 prize displayed at the National Portrait Gallery until January 2019 was a portrait of Ladies’ Pond swimmer Ray Long, taken by Alice Zoo, a talented young photographer who was granted permission to take a limited number of shots at the Ladies’ Pond.
Congratulations and thanks to Alice for creating this beautiful image (postcards of which can be purchased at the National Portrait Gallery).