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Open-water swimming has been surging in popularity for a few years now. And these days, an alarming number of Londoners consider dipping into piercingly cold pond water an ideal way to spend a winter’s morning. So many, in fact, that Hampstead Heath’s mixed pond could open all year round for the first time.
While the park’s separate men’s and ladies’ ponds are already open year-round, the mixed pond currently only opens for public swimming between April and October. But in its draft five-year business plan, the City of London Corporation’s Hampstead Heath, Highgate Wood and Queen’s Park Committee has said that it’ll assess the pond’s seasonal use. That means there could soon be more options for hardcore wild swimmers who want to brave the water during the winter months.
The plan says that opening the mixed pond throughout the year would contribute to the Corporation’s priority of improving physical health and emotional wellbeing for visitors. No specific date has been set for the review, but the plan anticipates that it will happen in the 2026/27 financial year.
Gregory Jones, chair of the committee, said: ‘Given the increasing popularity of open water swimming, we will be reviewing the current arrangements at the Mixed Pond. This will include looking at access, facilities and opening hours, to bring it into line with Parliament Hill Lido, Kenwood Ladies’ Pond and Highgate Men’s Pond.’
The plan also proposes re-landscaping the area around the mixed pond and improving the outdoor space at the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond with expansion of the accessible changing space, provision of additional outdoor showers and a review of the use of the meadow area.
And, excitingly for anyone who prefers sweating in a hot box over bathing in freezing cold pond water, the plan also says that the committee will ‘review sauna usage at Parliament Hill Lido and explore opportunities for introduction at other swimming areas’ some time between now and 2028.
The draft plan will be presented to the Hampstead Heath Consultative Committee next week and approval expected at separate meeting in early February.
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