When Beth Feresten moved to London, she was in awe of the Ladies’ Pond; a place to swim alongside herons and escape the city. She joined the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond Association hoping to make friends, joking that as an introvert, she “just wanted to hand out tea.”

But she did not expect to be thrown into a political “culture war.” As co-chair, Beth, now 68, faced down intimidation from anti-trans groups to oversee a vote that cemented the Association’s inclusive ethos in 2024. It was, she says, “the hardest thing I have ever done, and also the thing I’m the most proud of.”

Two years on, her defence of the space has been further backed by the High Court. Last Thursday, anti-trans group Sex Matters, which raised more than £65,000 to try and force the pond to ban trans people, was denied permission to take the City of London to court over the matter. The same day, the City published its public consultation in which more than 32,000 people said they wanted the ponds to remain trans inclusive – 86 per cent of respondents.

32-year-old Rachel Padilla, a policy officer at TransActual, thought the pond was “a utopia” the first time she went, but over the years she and her friends who are also trans have become increasingly scared of going – particularly after they saw someone wearing an “adult human female“ t-shirt there.

She tells Good Law Project she is “heartened” by the news. She describes anti-trans groups as “uninterested in what the vast majority of people want when it does not fit their narrow vision of the world,” adding that their mission to expel trans people from public life has meant they “cannot even wait for process, consultation, or actual complaint before jumping on service providers with expensive litigation.”

Since October, Good Law Project lawyers and journalists heard from dozens of women about why they want the ponds to remain trans-inclusive. This has included women who swim there every day of the year – rain or shine – and women who have been frequenting the ponds since they were children. 

It’s not a problem. Other people are creating a problem, inflaming it and deciding that there is a problem

Ruthie Petrie, 84, is a lesbian feminist who has been coming to the ponds since the 70s and has swam there almost every day for the past 15 years. She said she has always agreed with openness, dignity and respect towards “people’s chosen sexuality and gender and self-presentation […] there’s never been, for me, a question of hiving off trans women as though somehow this was completely unacceptable to society.”

In a witness statement gathered by Good Law Project, a woman who was a lifeguard in 2019 recounted how a small group used to repeatedly approach her and claim that a trans woman was behaving inappropriately in the changing room. “But often another lifeguard would have been in the changing room at the same time and confirmed that nothing like that had happened – it was completely invented,” she said.

When we reached out to Sex Matters, they offered no evidence that they were advancing the views of anything more than a minority. They did not respond to the overwhelming majority of pond users in the City of London’s consultation who said they wanted the ponds to remain trans inclusive. They also said nothing about their plans for the £65,000 they raised in the hope of challenging the corporation’s existing policy.

They did insist that the testimonies they shared came from women “who swim regularly at the ponds”, citing one witness who recalled a feeling of “not being safe”. This person recalled an encounter with someone in the changing rooms who they seem to have thought was trans. The witness said she felt “trapped” because she was naked and this person was standing between her and her towel. She also felt her “privacy was badly violated” and interpreted the other person’s behaviour as “demeaning, abusive, aggressive and intimidating”.

But for Ruth Hallgarten, 52, who Good Law Project spoke to during the celebration of the winter solstice at the ponds, the issues raised by such groups are “not a problem”. “Other people are creating a problem,” Ruth says, “inflaming it and deciding that there is a problem.”

The scene at the celebration is idyllic – the deck has been adorned with branches and flowers, and swimmers ring a bell and make a wish before entering the icy water. Once out, women hand out hot drinks and homemade cakes. It’s not hard to see why the Ladies’ Pond, which marks its centenary this year, is a sacred space for  somany – a lifeline for women in mental crises, pregnant women, religious women who do not feel comfortable swimming in mixed spaces – and even women who have experienced homelessness. It is a lifeline they never want to be taken away from trans women.

Mary Powell, 54, became a regular winter swimmer at the p about 15 years ago. Despite coming from a different class background to some of the women – some of whom she remembers were “very posh” – Mary says she still felt welcomed into the group. As a trade unionist, Mary said she had long understood to respect people’s gender identity thanks to the Equality Act and the Gender Recognition Act. She also had a trans colleague in the 90s. “This was at a Catholic organisation. The nuns didn’t seem bothered. They were tough old nuns who’d seen it all, and they just shrugged and got on with their jobs.”

Mary also mentions two Orthodox Jewish women who are regular pond swimmers, who “are not happy being used as a sort of emblem for the gender-critical brigade.” She remembers one of them standing up at the AGM in 2024 and telling the anti-trans activists: “You don’t speak for me.” But she was heckled. At another point in the meeting, an anti-trans activist stood on a chair shouting while another took a video of her – despite the Association having previously agreed that there would be no filming.

At the pond itself, women have also been made to feel unsafe by anti-trans activists. Mary remembers some “standing at the gate, looking up and down at anybody that came in to decide if they were sufficiently woman enough.” This was “self-defeating,” explains Mary, because not only did it go against everything the pond  stands for – which accepts women of all shapes and sizes – but it resulted in male police officers entering the space.

You can bring your sadness and you can bring your pain, and the Pond erases that

In an official comment sent to Good Law Project, Kenwood Ladies’ Pond Association said that they are “relieved” that Sex Matters case has been halted, describing it as a “proxy political battle.” They also referred to the 2024 AGM in which they said there was “an attempt by a group of gender-critical activists, who were not known to be keen swimmers, to try to take over the association.” They added that any swimmer who is made to feel unsafe is “strongly encouraged to approach the staff on duty for support,” and that “we believe many of our members would simply like to be left to swim in peace.”

“People’s identity and wellbeing is tied to nature in ways that are deeply embodied. Exclusion from these landscapes and spaces doesn’t just close doors, it fractures our sense of belonging in the world,” says Lenny Rajmont, trans architect and founder of Queerscapes. While Rajmont welcomes last week’s setback for Sex Matters, he describes the broader rollback of rights we are seeing as “deeply troubling” – for example, the impact Girlguiding’s new policy will have on trans girls’ access to nature and outdoor programmes. 

“Swimming access already has stark inequalities across socio-economic and ethnic minority communities,” he adds, warning that “layering on trans exclusion fundamentally contradicts what we know about nature’s necessity for human health and survival.”

For Beth, defending inclusivity at the onds took its toll on her mental health, to the point she was struggling to eat and sleep. “But when I wanted to walk away, I thought, God – I have a nice privilege that I can walk away. But for trans people, they can’t walk away from the bullying and violence.” And so she kept going, seeking solace in the nature and community that defines the Ladies’ Pond.

“This sounds silly, but in the water I’ll often say gratitude for all the women who’ve swam here before, and all of their strengths, whatever they have gone through, like cancer, divorces, deaths,” says Beth, as we near the end of our chat at the pond’s side, its resident fox meandering just a metre away from us. “You can bring your sadness and you can bring your pain, and the pond erases that. And you can harness the collective strength of the women who’ve swum over the years.”

This story was published in collaboration with Good Law Project, a non-profit powered by people across the UK to resist hate and bring hope.