A Swim at the Ladies' Pond
When I climb down the ladder into the Ladies' Pond, the fetus inside me assumes its eponymous position: curled tight against the water's chill.
It's stopped raining, but the wind is picking up. August seems to have taken a bite of autumn—rain pattering on skylights, chilly breezes at night. But still, seven of us have met this morning—strangers, all—to swim in these storied waters.
The waters themselves are murky, permitting only an inch or two of clarity. Ducks nest just outside the ropes, Egyptian geese strut the deck, and a heron squats as though inanimate in a darker corner of the pool.
Swimming here is a tradition at least 98 years old—the Kenwood Ladies' Pond has been open to the public since 1926, but swimmers have appeared in paintings of Hampstead Heath from more than 200 years ago.
There's a men's pond and a mixed pond as well, but the Ladies' Pond feels special, with its fence and gate warning out men far up the trail from the secluded waters: this is a reserved space. It attracts swimmers the year round; there are mini documentaries from both 1931 and 2016 of the "winter nymphs” who swim even in the coldest months.
This is August, still. It's not so cold, really. The ladies of my group are fast in their migrating water-tread circle. I think they must be real swimmers—that, or baby is…
