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UPDATED EVERY FRIDAY
Last Update:
Friday 14th January, 2005
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All content ©
New Journal Enterprises, 2004.
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FORUM –
Opinion in the CNJ
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Even the King said preserve the Heath
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The closure of the swimming ponds will fly in the face of
everything the Heath stands for, argues Mary Cane
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The Ladies Pond in the early 20th century
Mary Cane
King George V
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ON Monday night 250 distressed and angry Hampstead Heath users
gathered at Hampstead Town Hall. Another 100 were sent away because
the venue wasn’t large enough. They came from all over London.
Concern about the Corporation of London’s inability to
manage the Heath’s budget has led to comment as far a field
as Canada and New Zealand. London’s Mayor, Ken Livingststone
has threatened to take back the Heath from the custodianship of
the Corporation if it carries out its threat to close the swimming
ponds.
Apparently, mismanagement has led to a shortfall of cash. The budget
won’t balance without cuts in services or charging for what
has always been free. Catherine McGuinness, alderman and chairwoman
of Hampstead Heath Management Committee called the public meeting
to consult the people.
Catherine McGuinness would do well to study her history of the Heath.
Locals have a habit of tenacity. She may find that she is unable
to quell the rebellion that she has stirred with her proposals.
Two hundred and fifty years of free swimming will not be foregone.
Commercialisation of Heath beauty spots is simply out of the question.
We know that long before any Heath land was purchased for open public
recreation in 1871, swimming was a core activity. Indeed, swimming
and walking were always the core recreational activities on the
Heath that the public acquisition sort to secure in perpetuity.
How dare the Corporation of London propose further reductions in
access to swimming? For the last three years we have been subjected
to mean cuts in swimming hours. When the Ladies’ Pond is closed
a precious safe open space for women is also shut. How can it be
that the Corporation of London is so hopeless at managing the income
from its £100m City Cash budget that it has to look to charity
to supplement it or, worse, defile some of the most lovely wild
parts of the Heath with kiosks and barriers for money collection.
Charging for swimming or closing the Ponds would be reneging on
the promise the Corporation made in taking on the stewardship of
London’s most beloved open space.
On the 18th July 1925 King George V and Queen Mary came to Hampstead
Heath to open Kenwood and the adjoining land purchased by public
subscription. It included what is now the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond.
After the welcomes the ceremony began with a prayer for everyone
involved, “…to preserve it [the Heath] from all defilement
and impurity, and grant that those who visit this place may enjoy
the fresh air and beauty of nature and being refreshed in body,
mind and spirit, may cheerfully do their daily work”.
Then the King famously dedicated the Heath “…for all time
for the use and enjoyment of the public”.
These words reiterated the ideal behind Hampstead Heath embodied
with the original purchase of land in the Hampstead Heath Act 1871
– that of inviolable public recreational space. They should
perhaps be repeated out loud at the beginning of every meeting about
the Heath, since the City’s Aldermen appear to be ignorant
of their commitment, indeed their statutory duty.
For we women swimmers the allocation of the secluded Kenwood Pond
for ladies’ only was the product of over a quarter of a century
of campaigning. Any pond closures threaten the Ladies’ Pond.
Until 1925 women had had to rely on special days or allocations
of particular times of day to be allowed to swim in the regulated
Hampstead or Highgate Ponds. Of course, many swam with their families
in the some of the other ponds as was customary from the mid-18th
century. Victorian prudery hung about long after the close of the
19th century and men were not allowed to watch females swimming
in public swimming baths until well into the 20th century. Occasional
Ladies’ Days at the Hampstead Pond were popular with spectators.
Small wonder we are reluctant to abandon our hard won secluded pond.
We will do all we can to secure the future of all the ponds.
Have the Corporation gone mad? Their public duty coincides with
their best public relations in maintaining Hampstead Heath as the
users want it – a wild space for walking and swimming –
one of London’s finest natural havens.
It belongs to us, the people of London, not the Corporation of London,
nor its aldermen nor officers.
This is not the end of the debate, Catherine McGuinness may be trying
to place herself beyond another judicial review by holding a public
consultation but Heath users have never been more united.
We are totally against charges for swimming or pond closures. They
are defilement. Mrs McGuinness had better alert her colleagues that
the City Cash had best be spent on the statutory responsibilities
to keep the Heath open for free walking and swimming. Anything less
and we will have our Heath back.
For a detailed account of the history of the Heath go to www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22644&strquery
=Hampstead.
• Mary Cane is a former Camden Councillor and a member of
the Kenwood Ladies Association.
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