Ponds Landscaping Project
Hampstead Heath’s Mixed Swimming Pond
Amongst the most celebrated places of Hampstead Heath are its three swimming ponds. These provide an opportunity for visitors to experience swimming completely surrounded by nature, and attract tens of thousands of people each year.
Since last year, the City of London Corporation, who manage the ponds, have been investing in improving their accessibility and the construction work is coming to an end soon.
The project aims to ensure the ponds are more easily and safely accessed by all users with new features including ramps, disabled changing rooms and hoists to lower swimmers into the water.
New Platform at the Mixed Pond
Bank to be planted at the Mixed Pond
New disabled changing facilities at the Men’s Pond
Now, with spring around the corner, attention is beginning to turn to post-construction landscaping and the restoration of areas impacted during the works. Heath Hands have been tasked with carrying out landscaping at the Mixed and Men’s Ponds. We are working closely with the Heath’s Swim Team and aim to get local volunteers involved with both the initial planting and ongoing maintenance. We are also grateful to have support from both the Mixed Pond Association and Men’s Pond Association.
Buildings, such as the new disabled changing rooms at the Men’s Pond, will be screened with planters. New fences at the Mixed Pond will have climbers and shrubs planted to screen them and trees will be planted to restore hedgerows. All the plants will help attract wildlife and improve biodiversity around the facilities. The planting will include native wildflower species to complement the Heath’s wilder areas and help to attract a variety of pollinators and other wildlife.
Purple loosestrife at the Men’s Pond
We are currently fundraising to help start the landscaping works this spring. The money raised will help us to buy new plants and other materials for the project. Thank you to everyone who has already donated!
To donate, visit our Ponds Planting Appeal page. You can also read more about the project in this week’s Ham and High newspaper.
Hampstead Heath’s ponds are excellent wetland habitats supporting a great variety of species including amphibians, wildfowl and insects such as dragonflies. Heath Hands run events and guided walks throughout the year, many of which involve a focus on the ponds, such as bird watching or our River Fleet guided walks. Check out our upcoming events here or donate to our work at the ponds here.
