The new signs at the changing rooms at the Heath pond

SWIMMERS say they will “strip when we want to” at the Hampstead Heath Men’s Pond in protest at a new ban on naked sunbathing.

The tradition stretches back over 100 years but a new sign appeared this week at the changing rooms saying nudity was not allowed.

Regulars say Heath managers, the City of London, made a unilateral decision against the views of a majority of swimmers, with some planning a “slow strip” protest.

One swimmer, who did not want to be named, said: “People have always been able to sunbathe in the nude. No one cares, and its one of those things that helps make this place ­special. How can they stop us? If they come in and ask one to cover up, we’re all going to strip and stand there naked in support.”

The City say after removing a “vanity barrier” which divided the changing area into two due to the pandemic, there has been a rise in complaints about men going nude. It says no decision has been made over what will be allowed – or won’t be allowed – once access improvements at the ponds have been completed, but the works meant it could not provide a dedicated area for men with no trunks at this time.

A consultation survey will follow, but swimmers say the process has been botched, with the new signs being put up with no warning.

Swimmer Crispin Dawes, 71, who has been visiting the Men’s Pond since the age of 10, said: “There has never been a problem before. In the days before the City, you would show up, do what you wanted and no one batted an eye lid. Putting the screens up in the first place created a divide, which was unnecessary.”

He added: “Nude sunbathing has been going on ever since the pond opened as a public facility and probably before then. “It is in an enclosed space, not visible to the public, and if you go into any changing room, you will see people with their clothes off.”

Swimmer Pete Schiazza also supported the right of anyone who wants to strip naked, and added: “Many do not want the barrier back, either. It is pointless and feels divisive – we’re all in there together as men.”

The Men’s Pond remains one of the last spaces for people to be able to remove their clothes in London – and until the City took on the facility after the abolition of the Greater London Council, there were no rules governing the wearing of swimwear.

In the early 1990s, after the pond was closed for silt to be removed, swimmers returned to find the barrier dividing the changing enclosure in two. One side was meant for naked sunbathing, the other for changing, a system swimmers say wasn’t needed but worked.

One swimmer told the New Journal that two nude men had been spoken to since the new sign was put in, and lifeguards have been faced with the difficult task of speaking with regulars who were unaware of the ban.

It was reported that one man refused to put his trunks on and a Heath constabulary officer called – and was told by the officer he had been given no instructions and therefore would not be enforcing the ban.

It has been suggested that the rise in the popularity of cold water swimming meant new users of the waters were not aware of the pond’s culture and may have taken offence. A swimmer who bathes every day with a group of fathers from a local primary school told the New Journal: “It feels like a continuation of the City’s efforts to sanitise the pond.

“It started before Covid, but since the lockdown there has been what seems to be a concerted effort to make the ponds into a bland corporate sports ‘facility’, rather than what it is – an organic, semi-wild escape from the strictures of city life. This feels like the next step in erasing part of its history and its unique essence.”

He added no one who swam at the ponds knew any one personally who objected.

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