Hampstead women’s pond: The fight isn’t over

Earlier this month, the City of London Corporation voted to keep Hampstead Heath’s ponds trans inclusive.

The decision followed a public consultation involving more than 38,000 people, where an overwhelming 86% of respondents said they wanted the ponds to remain open to trans people. It was also backed by more than 14,000 of our supporters, who signed a petition calling for hate to be kept out of Hampstead’s ponds. 

But despite this clear public support, the legal challenge to the policy is not over.

Even though trans women have been swimming at the women’s pond for decades, last year Sex Matters tried to stop them, asking the High Court for permission to challenge this trans-inclusive admissions policy.

The High Court refused permission. The judge found that the challenge was both too early – because the consultation process was still underway – and too late, because the decisions allowing trans people to use the ponds had been made years earlier.

But Sex Matters appealed. In March, the Court of Appeal ruled that the case should go ahead and be heard in full. A hearing is now scheduled for the start of November.

That doesn’t mean Sex Matters have won. It simply means the court has decided their arguments should be considered at a full hearing. It will now be for the court to decide whether the admissions policy is lawful.

In the meantime, we’ve been preparing to intervene. For months, we’ve been working on legal arguments and gathering evidence from people who use the ponds, including swimmers who have been sharing the water with trans people for years.

For Cat Knight, Good Law Project’s deputy head of legal, it’s vital that the court hears from the communities targeted by the ban.

“The consultation showed clear and overwhelming support for allowing trans people to keep using the ponds,” Knight said. “The court needs to hear substantive evidence not only from the tiny minority who want to challenge this policy, but also from the people who have been swimming alongside trans people without any problems for decades.”

We expect to file our intervention later this summer, once the City of London Corporation has submitted its grounds of resistance. As the case moves forward, we’ll keep working to make sure the experiences of pond users – and the strength of support for trans inclusion – are properly heard.

Together we can make sure that Hampstead ponds keep their long tradition of respect and shared community burning bright.

We’re not backing down.