City Swimmers

"City Swimmers" photo by Ruth Corney

A couple of evenings ago I watched an interesting little documentary film called "City Swimmers". I'd been trying to get hold of it on DVD, until I discovered that it was available for online viewing via Journeyman on Booserver for the princely sum of a pound.

The film tells the story of the campaign to keep Hampstead Heath Ponds in London open for free swimming in 2004-5, when the Corporation of the City of London (who are responsible for running the heath) were threatening to either close one of the open air ponds or start charging people to use them. As a result the swimming assocations that use the ponds (including the Kenwood Ladies Pond Association, which the film focuses on) began a battle to maintain the free access and keep all three ponds open (there are ponds for women only, men only, and a mixed pond for families).

This campaign coincided with another fight to maintain longer hours of use of the ponds in the absence of lifeguards (particularly in the winter months), which chimed with similar campaigns elsewhere across Britain by swimmers who found themselves increasingly prevented from accessing rivers, lakes and ponds. (It was interesting to see that the campaign to maintain access to Hatchmere Lake also appears in this context in the film - I swam there a couple of times last summer.) While many of these restrictions were in the name of "Health and Safety", they more often turn out to be either local councils trying to insulate themselves from the risk of legal action, or private interests trying to profit from previously public places.

By the end of the film (in mid-2005) it seems that the campaign in Hampstead Heath was at least a partial success, as the Corporation decided to keep the ponds open and institute a policy of "voluntary" charges, at the same time a judge ruled that it was legal for swimmers to use the ponds without a life guard. However I think that the longer term future of the ponds is still at risk (although I'm not fully aware of the current situation), and equally while access to rivers and lakes elsewhere is improving there is still an ongoing campaign to preserve the right to outdoor swimming in many places.

(If you're interested in knowing more about the London Pools Campaign then their website has information about various swimming facilities in and around the capital http://www.londonpoolscampaign.com/, while the River and Lake Swimming Association website has more general information on outdoor swimming http://www.river-swimming.co.uk/.)

Aside from telling the story of these campaigns, the film also features images of the ponds and of the people (and particularly the grand ladies of the Kenwood Ladies Pond Association) swimming at various times of year, from warm summer days (when it is easy to imagine yourself enjoying the park) through to the icy depths of winter (probably not so much). For me these sections showing ordinary people enjoying a swim in the beautiful natural pools sums up a lot of what is great about the activity of swimming. So overall "City Swimmers" was pretty good value for a pound!