Hampstead Heath swimming ponds will remain open to trans people
Gender-critical group Sex Matters has continued to campaign to “keep men out of the Ladies’s Pond” since August 2022 and has repeatedly been refused approval
By Aaron Sugg
Hampstead Heath officials have announced that the park’s public swimming ponds will remain open to trans people, following a string of campaigns brought by the gender-critical group Sex Matters.
City of London Corporation councillors have approved recommendations to retain existing access arrangements, with upgrades planned to improve women’s privacy.
Sex Matters, founded in 2021 and led by Maya Forstater, has continued to campaign to “keep men out of the Ladies’ Pond” since August 2022 and has repeatedly been refused approval.
Sex Matters brought a judicial review against the ponds’s operator in 2025, campaigning against their trans-inclusive policy
In 2025, Sex Matters formally began legal proceedings against the City of London Corporation to challenge the trans-inclusive policy at Hampstead Heath.
Sex Matters brought a judicial review against the ponds’s operator, arguing that allowing trans people to use facilities aligned with their gender identity was a breach of the Equality Act 2010, amounting to “discrimination”.
The challenge followed an April 2025 UK Supreme Court ruling defining “woman” under the law as based on “biological sex”, a decision which excludes trans women.
The High Court dismissed Sex Matters’s legal challenge in January 2026
Following the ruling, the pond body held a consultation with more than 38,000 responses, showing overwhelming support for the current trans-inclusive arrangements, with just 13 percent saying they wanted the men’s and ladies’ ponds to become strictly single-sex spaces.
Responding to Sex Matters’ legal challenge, the High Court dismissed the gender-critical human rights charity’s case in January 2026.
The ladies’ pond remains available for “biological and trans women”, while the men’s pond is for men.
To appease the minority opposed to the trans-inclusive policy, officers are proposing upgrades to changing, showering and toilet facilities at a cost of up to £1m.
While welcoming the upholding of Hampstead Heath’s trans-inclusive policy, Trans+ Solidarity Alliance director Alexandra Parmar-Yee said she opposed appeasing critics
Trans+ Solidarity Alliance director Alexandra Parmar-Yee welcomed the upholding of the public swimming ponds’ trans-inclusive policy.
“This is great news for the ponds but it’s ridiculous that they are going to inevitably have to spend public money defending their inclusive choice against well-funded lawfare.”
She added: “It’s on this Labour government to ensure a coherent legal framework that protects inclusive spaces like this more clearly. So far, they aren’t delivering – and services providers are caught in the legal crossfire.”
Final funding and timings are due to go before members in July.