Month: April 2021

We have just been informed that online booking to swim at the Bathing Ponds and Lido will resume from 1 May 2021, with the exception of the earliest and latest sessions each day:

• 07.00 – 10.00 free flow (last entry 09.30)  
• 10.30 – 11.30 pre book 
• 12.00 – 13.00 pre book 
• 13.30 – 14.30 pre book 
• 15.00 – 16.00 pre book 
• 16.30 – 17.30 pre book 
• 18.00 – 20.30 free flow (last entry 20.00)

The booking link for the City of London/Eventbrite is here. Tickets will be released on Eventbrite on Monday at 12 noon for the week ahead, except for the first three days (1 to 3 May 2021) which will be released on Friday 30 April at 12 noon. 

A telephone booking line is available for swimmers who have no internet access or who find this system difficult to use at 020 7332 3779 (Monday to Friday).  Please forward this information to any swimmer you know who may prefer to book by phone.

Covid-secure measures will remain in place for the time being, with a maximum capacity of 60 swimmers at the Ladies’ Pond, and the requirement to provide contact details when you arrive for test and trace purposes.

We had hoped there would be greater use of “capped free flow” (no need to book) through the summer months, to preserve greater spontaneity for swimmers.  If you feel strongly about this and would like to give feedback to the City of London, please do so via the email addresses below.  Some thoughts which you may wish to refer to are attached here, but please personalise your response if possible:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Please copy to [email protected]

The next meeting of the Hampstead Heath Consultative Committee takes place on Monday 19 April 2021 at 5.30 pm. This meeting can be viewed on line here.

The full agenda pack can be downloaded here. Items of particular interest are:

• Item 5 and items 7c to 7d – minutes of the Sports Advisory Forum and feedback on the proposed Terms of Reference for a new Sports & Wellbeing Advisory Forum with which to replace this forum.  
• The Hampstead Heath Consultative Committee agenda pack omits detailed feedback on the above item provided by the KLPA on 22 March 2020 which can be seen here.
• Items 7f and 7g cover The City of London Corporation’s review of the 2020/21 swimming season and feedback from the swimming associations including the KLPA.
• The KLPA response has been partly redacted in the published committee papers in respect the costs of the first disastrous online booking platform used last year. For the record it cost £4,134 and was scrapped after a few days; that money would have paid for over 1,700 concessionary swims at £2.40 last summer.

The next meeting of the Hampstead Heath, Highgate Woods and Queen’s Park Management Committee will be on Wednesday 26 May 2021 at 4 pm and in due course details will be available here.

Recent press coverage concerning the re-opening of the ponds and restrictive access can be seen here in the 1 April 2021 edition of the Camden New Journal. 

The 15 April 2021 letters page of Ham & High includes further correspondence challenging the figures used by the City of London in March 2020 to justify inflated and enforced swimming charges.

On 3 April 2021 we sent out an email detailing how the Annual General Meeting would be conducted this year due to the continuing Coronavirus restrictions.  An Annual Report which was circulated is attached again here. Members are reminded of the following deadlines:

• If you have any questions about the contents of the reports, please email [email protected] with your questions by 5pm on 17 April 2021. A collective response to any questions received will follow in our second mailout to members by 23 April 2021.
• If you wish to stand for the KLPA Committee please return a completed nomination form (signed by two current KLPA members nominating you) by5 pm on 17 April 2021 to [email protected].  If you cannot access a printer or scanner, then a chain of emails from the two current KLPA members nominating you will also suffice, forwarded to [email protected].
• Please remember to renew your KLPA membership by 30 April 2021. Subscription rates and details of how to do this are on the membership form at page 12 of the report, which should be sent to [email protected]. Please let us know if paying your subscription is going to present difficulties for you at present by emailing [email protected].

Once questions and nominations have been received, there will be a further mailout, by 23 April 2021, responding to those questions and including an e-ballot for members to vote on the following:

• Minutes of the 2020 AGM
• Approval of the 2021 Chair’s Report
• Approval of 2020/21 Accounts
• Any contested positions on the KLPA Committee

Election Results will be declared by 3 May 2021.

On Saturday 17 April 2021, between 10 a.m. and midday, KLPA mugs designed by Sue Hellard, will be on sale at the Ladies’ Pond in the bike park. These are £8 each or two for £15. The KLPA book Wild Swimming Walks will also be on sale for £10. Please bring cash (exact money) or a cheque (payable to KLPA).

KLPA members are also reminded that there is free access to the upper meadow for non-swimming women and girls, which the KLPA has negotiated with the City of London.  This is subject to the overall limits on the numbers of people permitted at the Ladies’ Pond under the Covid-secure measures.