The first I heard of this month’s planned protest was when Amy Desir spoke about it at Reformers Tree at the end of April. I hadn’t seen Amy for ages, and it was great to hear she was ‘coming out of retirement’ to organise another protest at the ponds.
“Women have spoken; the Supreme Court has spoken, but the fight is not over. If anybody fancies a Bank Holiday Monday down at the Men’s Pond, I’ll be there next Monday. The Men’s Pond, because they’re still saying, ‘we’ll think about it’. Fuck that. The Supreme Court has spoken. We’re taking back our spaces and we’re proving it now.”
The City of London Corporation (CLC) is in charge of the ponds, and after the recent Supreme Court judgement, a spokesman told the Telegraph:
“The City Corporation is compliant with existing UK law. In line with other affected organisations, we are carefully considering the judgment and awaiting statutory guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.”
The paper continued:
“The London authority, which also oversees the neighbouring Hampstead Heath men’s and mixed ponds, confirmed its Self-ID policy would remain in effect at this time while it considered the implications of the Supreme Court judgement.”
The Supreme Court has, of course,has made things perfectly clear. a woman is a woman and always has been so. No made up imaginary woowoo about feelings and an inborn love of pink, just a biological woman who can have long hair or short, dresses or skirts, love men, women or both, perform as few or as many stereotypes as her circumstances command – all as an Adult Human Female, or ‘biological woman’. We all know what a woman is: we all came out of one, and it is getting harder and harder for TRAs to deny that fact. But it doesn’t stop some people – in this case the City of London Corporation- from trying to convince us that a woman is actually a feeling in a man’s head. Or that a man is a feeling in a woman’s head.
Initially, news of the protest was spread by mouth and shared in a few local groups. The day before we were due to meet, I saw the Daily Mail had run an article entitled, “Bank holiday Man Day! Women’s rights campaigners set to wreak havoc on male pool at Hampstead Heath”.
It was time to pull my banner out of the bottom of the box where it had been crumpled since 2022, and plug in the iron.
Protest at the Ponds
For those who don’t know the history of protests at the ponds, women’s groups have protested there twice before, in 2018 at the original ‘Man Friday’ protest organised by Amy and Hannah (aka Sweary Godmother) and then again in 2022 at Venice’s ‘Let Women Swim’ protest.
You can read my piece about the 2018 protest here. and the Telegraph coverage from 2022 here.
Back to 2025
It was great news to hear that Hannah was also joining the protest. We met up in a pub near Gospel Oak, on the Bank Holiday Monday at noon, filling the tables outside; spilling onto the pavement as we waited for stragglers and put the final touches to costumes. At her request, I dotted Amy’s ‘builder’s tea’ skullcap with black sharpie dots in an attempt to re-create the male pattern baldness look. A nice attention to detail, although the final result was hidden under her golden ‘thief’ crown, which was probably for the best, as it wasn’t my finest artistic moment.
In case you’d been wondering- you know you had- Amy’s costume was a nod to Charles Edward Lord, a prominent figure in the City of London Corporation who labours under the illusion that he is a genderless non-binary being. Here he is on the left, being his authentic self. (not my photo)
In 2018, Lord oversaw a consultation re allowing transwomen (aka men) into the women’s pond. The consultation results suggested swimmers showed support for the motion and it was passed, but ‘incomplete’ entries were not counted in the reckoning. This meant that those who didn’t answer the ‘gender identity’ question (among others) did not have their views considered. Overall, almost half the consultation admissions were ignored. The whole thing seemed a little dodgy to say the least, and Amy’s costume seemed an appropriate tribute.
The forecast was ‘chilly’, but the sun was popping its head in and out of the clouds. After a quick drink some women changed into their costumes and, gathering forces, we set off to the Men’s Pond where we planned to take our bank holiday swim.
There were about 30 of us in attendance. As we walked through the park, we waved our banners and twirled our moustaches in the sunshine.
“What are they doing?” one bloke asked the woman he was with, eyeing the ‘no peens in our pond’ sign with incredulty.
“I think it’s that feminist thing about the ponds,” she said. I was surprised she knew about it and glanced over at her. Of course, she might have just looked at our banners and moustaches and guessed.
“I agree with you!” she grinned, giving me a massive thumbs up.
This was very encouraging. A few people cheered as we passed by. Yes, we got the odd funny look too. We were sporting a lot of beards and moustaches, even for a posh area like Hampstead. We heard no negative comments on the walk over, although later, outside the men’s pond, women were advised to ‘be kind’ and think about the feelings of transwomen. The man concerned seemed to think we were a very unpleasant bunch.
Amy and Hannah held the big purple ‘Let Women Swim’ banner aloft at the front, although it was billowing in the wind so much, it was hard to read.
Somebody started a chant.
“The law says no! Men must go!
“No goolies in our poolies!”
We thought this was absolutely hilarious so we kept it up for quite a while.
I dashed up to the front of our little march to photograph Amy & Sweary and then to the back to get video and pictures of some of the costumes. I might not have swum, but I certainly got my exercise for the day! As we reached the border of the pond we could see the lifeguards in the distance, so we gave them a chirpy holler and a wave to confirm we were on our way.
Turning the corner, we could see a police car, and two men in yellow jackets standing at the gated entrance of the Men’s Pond, presumably prepared to bar our way if we were to surge forward in a manly manner. We rallied behind Amy and Sweary, who had prepared a little speech which she delivered very stylishly.
“If you are excluding us, you’re excluding us unlawfully. Moreover, by allowing ‘transwomen’- so that’s men who identify as women- into the female pond you are further discriminating against women because you have a mixed pond, which used to be called the women’s pond, a mixed pond, formerly called the mixed pond, and a men’s pond. This is direct discrimination against women and in contravention, I believe, of the Equality Act 2010.”
The stoic yellow jackets summonded a policeman, PC Paul, who had the look of a good old-fashioned bobby, complete with old-school uniform and a twinkle in his eye. PC Paul began by greeting us as ‘ladies’, which was very triggering for some of the lads present, especially when they realised he was not going to let us in.
“We’ve just been misgendered!” wailed one.
PC Paul asked the gathering how it would like to be addressed. Women offered up various options. Then PC Paul spoke into his radio, loudly and clearly, “We’ve stopped his Lordships, Sirs and men from entering the men’s pond. We need you here.”
Then, while some of us were still laughing, he firmly told us that we were not being refused admission on the grounds of our gender identities, but because we were a protest.
“Your lordships, sirs and other gentlemen. Unfortunately I am under instruction, due to this being a protest…”
“No, no, no. Not a protest! We are just lads!” interrupted a chorus of dismayed voices.
I looked round at our little posse of manly men and found it hard to disagree with PC Paul. Flags, banners, placards and weird costumes- none of this suggested that we were just a group of guys out for a swim. Other members of the group were not so easily led from their goal.
“No, no, no! It’s a lads day out!
Let Men Swim! We’re lads, we’re just lads!”
There’s a clip from Life of Brian that mirrored this scene. The Python team, like us, found humour in the darkest places and there’s a scene where women in fake beards and moustaches are pretending to be men so thery can attend a stoning. This is how we must have looked and sounded. The yellow jackets didn’t even crack a smile. We were having a great time.
After PC Paul had broken the news, Nathan, from the Hampstead Heath Constabulary came out to talk with us. Nathan’s look was more supercop than local boby and his suggestion that we were ‘pretending to be men’ was met with much righteous indignation.
“You think we’re pretending to be men? Who are you to decide who is pretending and who isn’t?”
“We could think you were pretending to be a man!” observed one woman.
“You’re very convincing!” another assured him.
“I could be a woman pretending to be a man, pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man!”
“What about when men go into the women’s pond? Do staff say, ‘you’re pretending to be a woman’ or do they just let them swim?”
Nathan elusively replied that there had not been any problems and that since the Supreme Court judgement came out, “we have lifeguards there that would call us if they had any issues”.
While we tried to explain the significance of the Supreme Court judgement to Nathan, and he assured us that he was sympathetic to our cause but there hadn’t been any issues- something which we knew not to be true- I noticed that some of the women had slipped off quietly.
So, there we are, standing around, not quite so many lads among us as there used to be, chatting with Nathan & being studiously ignored by the two guys in yellow jackets, when suddenly somebody calls out, “They’re in! They’re in the pond!”
“It was quite spontaneous,” Hannah told me later, “It wasn’t really planned, we just did it. So we all went in in different places. I was trying to get in quickly in case anyone tried to stop me.”
Hannah ended up bashing her knee quite badly. Pool staff helped her clean it and bandaged her up. To give Nathan his due, when she later emerged with a bandage and a slight limp, he showed genuine concern for her welfare, stopping his conversation with the lads, and going over to ask if she was okay.
When I heard the cry of “They’re in the pond!” I immediately rushed to the left of the lake to see, but the swimmers were too far away for me to get a halfway decent photo with my iPhone15. There was a press bloke next to me with an absolutely massive zoom lens on his camera, snapping away, but all I could manage from that angle was this (left).
“Go round to the other side!” called out Venice, who later told me she couldn’t make out who was where but knew there would be photographers around. I dashed to the other side of the pond- I’d removed my beard by this point- arrived at a better vantage point and took the rather grainy pictures below. 
In the water, the lads splashed and laughed and waved, and at one point embarked on a chorus of ‘if a person has a penis, he’s a man’. We snapped away from the bank, birds dipped and flapped over the pond and laughter drifted across the water.
I arrived back at the entrance to the Men’s Pond just in time to see Sweary emerging triumphantly from the gate after her dip.
In all, five of the women broke free from our little band of merry men and took the plunge. Bedraggled but triumphant, they swan for about 15 or 20 minutes. Draped in towels and coats and whatever else they had to hand, they shivered and dried themselves off, mission accomplished, and we headed off to the pub and then later to the park.
Here are four of those five fabulous lads. Actually, I believe Venice was non-binary ‘gender free’, so three men and a theybie.
A Word from our Swimmers
HANNAH aka Sweary
“When I saw the video of Amy speaking at LWS, calling us to action at the ponds again, I just knew I had to be there too. She is the brilliant, ridiculous genius that came up with Man Friday back in 2018 – I was only ever riding her coattails.
The protest was perfectly pitched. Enough silliness to make it fun, enough law to make our point. Whether the Corporation of London will ever listen to us is another matter, but whilst they obfuscate and hide behind their lies that this is a complex issue we will hold their feet to the fire. They now know without any room for error that their take on the ponds is wrong, and frankly I suspect they’ve always known this. They just got away with throwing women under the bus because it was popular at the time. Well, that time has passed.
Special shout out to the lifeguards for patching up my busted knee.”
AMY
Amy told me, “Hampstead Heath has a men’s pond, a mixed pond and a ladies’ pond. The City of London Corporation has no excuse not to comply with the law and their refusal to do so exposes the rank misogyny of their decision makers.”
You can read Amy’s funny and factual tweet thread about the protest and the law, here.
IZZY
“The whole day was a classic TERF day out, full of sisterhood, humour and underlying determination. The emotional reunion of the original Man Friday team and Venice (who had originally got me into the pond protests) made it extra special. The police, security and swimming men played along with us- what a positive change from the similar protest in 2018. We really were more Life of Brian than Life of Brian. Now we just need the law to be applied to the women’s pond as the men’s pond- fairly! Are you listening, City of London?”
GROUCHO
“At the women’s pond, it’s not just about getting undressed with privacy, it’s about spending time together in the meadow away from the male gaze. This is really important for all women but it becomes more important for lesbians, for orthodox Jewish women, for Muslim women and for any woman who feels uneasy or frightened in front of men.
This is a place where women can be themselves, in stages of undress and where, without men present, conversation flows in a way that is unique to single sex spaces. We can talk about women’s issues, maybe an abusive relationship we are in; sexual harassment at work, menopause, motherhood, juggling a low paid job with child care costs…
Despite women’s spaces being as important today as they were 100 years ago, the Kenwood Ponds are digging their heels and refusing to follow the Supreme Court ruling. This is unacceptable.
We, as women, as feminist activists, refuse to accept this. This protest was for ourselves and for all women and girls, alive now and all those of future generations. I am not a mother, I don’t have a young daughter, I’m not Muslim, I’m not an orthodox Jew, but I’m a woman and I care about all my sisters just as the suffragettes cared about my grandmother and my mother. I fall into the category of women who feel frightened in the presence of men. Let me swim.”
VENICE
“I thought the best thing about today was that it was a reunion of the original Man Friday team from the action back in 2018. Hannah Clarke – also known as Sweary Godmother- just reappeared after she was summoned by the fabulous Amy Desir! They were the OG men’s pond campaigners and I’m so happy to support them today.
As well as peaking loads of newbies, like I hope we did in the mainstream media, I think it really warmed the hearts of many hundreds of TERFs around the world to see those two fabulous women re-emerge. It was a proper happy bank holiday Man-day!
A word from our detractors
And the newspapers the next day…
It seems a sign had been spotted on the noticeboard in the staff hut, warning staff not to discuss the Supreme Court ruling or pond policy with swimmers. Staff should report ‘any issues’ and if questioned say only, “We are continuing as we are until we hear further from our Senior Management Team.”
Sarah Vine KC told the Telegraph that the City of London Corporation’s self-ID stance was not compatible with calling the ponds single sex and “any continued description of two of the ponds as ‘men’s’ and ‘ladies’ will expose the Corporation to discrimination claims…”
Clearly, this isn’t over yet.
