Hampstead ponds

[Ariana12]

https://hampstead-heath-bathing-ponds.commonplace.is

Here's a link to the consultation. By way of recap: there are 3 ponds run by the City of London: in theory male, female and mixed. Although in practice they are male, mixed and mixed as the Kenwood Ladies pond is in fact open to TiMs. The City, instead of applying the Supreme Court ruling is having a consultation..doesn't seem to be limited to people living in the vicinity.

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And, let's be honest, a woman is not going to be a sexual and/or dangerous threat to a man.

But yes. This is a belief system where feelings create facts that vary and appear and disappear, and history is rewritten, all of it to serve the current agenda in hand. It tends to derail rather hard when it encounters a court room where reality and facts are stable, objective things.

There are currently nearly 30,000 responses. I suspect that there has been a huge TRA mobilization to flood the consultation with "trans-inclusive" answers.

Maybe this consultation is just an anger sponge. They still have to follow the law regardless of what people write in it.

An oldie, but goodie.

I thought a group of women tried, to make a point, but they were turned away.

It may have been this event, I may be wrong but think I remember there was a quieter attempt, too.

It was the Man Friday protests, probably in about 2018 or 2019.

Many of them were Mumsnetters I think

Just seen this. HC dismissed the challenge. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01/29/hampstead-heath-ladies-pond-ruling/

What a shame. Sex Matters have published the following statement:

"Sex Matters is disappointed that our application for permission for a judicial review of the City of London’s decision to allow men into the women’s bathing pond, and vice versa, has been refused.

This decision was solely on procedural grounds. The High Court did NOT find that the City of London Corporation’s self-ID policy was lawful.

The hearing concerned whether to allow a challenge to the City of London’s decision to keep its policy in place pending the results of a consultation and review. The court considered the decision to put up new posters departing from the original policy, and also, alternatively, whether the old policy could be challenged now.

It did not consider whether the policy itself was lawful. That has not been considered in any court.

Sex Matters CEO Maya Forstater said:

“The fight for women’s safety, privacy and dignity in single-sex spaces will continue. Just because this particular claim was ruled out on procedural grounds does not give any service provider the green light to allow trans-identifying males into female facilities.

“The City’s policy and its unwillingness to defend the lawfulness of that policy in court simply pushes the risk of harassment and the cost and difficulty of taking legal cases onto individual women and members of staff. This is deeply unjust.”

The City of London first made the decision to allow men into the women’s ponds and the women’s communal changing rooms and showers in 2017.

The High Court accepted the City of London’s argument that this decision was “out of time” for a legal challenge.

It decided that because a consultation was under way, the proper time to take a challenge would be after that consultation had been used to inform a new policy. It accepted the City of London’s argument that it had not yet reached a new decision about whether to change the policy to exclude men from these facilities or to continue to allow them in.

It also found that it is open to individuals who experience discrimination and harassment because of the current policy to bring discrimination claims in the county court.

Sex Matters is considering its legal options. We thank everyone who contributed to the case, both by donating and by sharing their stories in witness statements of what it means in practice when men are allowed into women’s showers and changing rooms."