(If you want to see the video you will need to click onto the blog as the email notification does not include the video.)
The Ladies’ Pool (or, to give it its correct title, Kenwood Ladies’ Pool) is, sadly, closed because of COVID-19, but….. that gives us an opportunity that we would not otherwise have. We can take pictures! Admittedly, only from a distance, but normally we would not be allowed to take pictures at all….
So the short video above takes you down the path which runs along the eastern edge of heath, beside those allotments I tried to show you last week, and on up past the entrance to the Ladies’ Pool, to Kenwood. But, as you can see, the entrance is as far as we can go. However, round the other side…
There is a large meadow that run up the west side of the Ladies’ Pond. The thick shrubbery which fringes it would normally shield the ladies from view. But last week, the leaves were still only breaking into bud, so you could still peer through…
(If you want to see the video you will need to click onto the blog as the email notification does not include the video.)
And here you can see the pool and the rather smart new changing rooms more clearly.
And on the opposite side of the pool that sheltered and sunny meadow where you can lie in the sun after your swim – or indeed all day – with n’ary a soul to disturb you.
Kenwood Ladies’ Pond is a place of pilgrimage for wild swimmers – and for those who believe in swimming in all weathers. And they truly do. I have been there when the snow was on the ground and I was well wrapped in many layers of fur and wool. But a group of woman, many of them of around my own age, were still stripping off and if not plunging in, certainly lowering themselves resolutely into the water.
There was a delightful documentary on the BBC last year (sadly not currently available on iPlayer) about swimming on Hampstead Heath which featured a number of those hardy ladies. But this article in the Guardian last year about writers who swim there give you some idea of how treasured the the pool is. Another, by Esther Freud in Vogue last year, lauds the delights of swimming there throughout seasons! The history is also fascinating – but that is for another blog….
My daily blog now has an Instagram account! WalksonHampsteadHeath – the idea being to widen the circle of people who might enjoy a daily ramble across the heath. Please follow us and pass on the news!!
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