Let’s bring outdoor swimming to Waltham Forest

Thanks for signing the petition for an outdoor swimming facility in Waltham Forest. We now have a date to meet with Clare Coghill, the Leader of the Council, on the 3rd of October.

She is enthusiastic about an outdoor swimming facility in Waltham Forest and suggested Hollow Pond as a location, but says that the council currently hasn’t the funds to pay for it.

She has offered to put us in touch with the City of London Corporation, who owns the land around Hollow Pond and already runs three natural swimming ponds and one lido on Hampstead Heath.

We need your support:

Three things you can do to make it happen:

1. Share the petition – whether it’s by email, social media or showing the petition to friends, family, colleagues and local clubs and societies. We have 1.9k so far, but to show broad public support, we need at least twice as many. www.tinyurl.com/outdoorswim

2. Do you feel passionate about open water swimming? Join the Walthamstow Open Water Swimmers on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/1642063785816397/?fb_dtsg_ag=AdwKMK_w1n7YxKNY35NYWi7PzUkSdjitHZ1Ut9dbxq6POQ%3AAdzqZHF15gMeZfJaQMHSboEv9zfIKgTprO1zSfigmLOk6g

3. If you would like to be more involved, join the steering group either via the Facebook group above or by emailing outdoorswimWF@gmail.com

Detailed update

The petition has reached 1.9k signatures and was covered by the local Guardian Newspaper, the Waltham Forest Echo as well as Stella Creasy’s newsletter. 

Residents are very enthusiastic about bringing outdoor swimming to Waltham Forest, but some were worried about putting further financial pressure on an already overstretched council and the pool not being profitable or used in winter.

Also in the comments of the petition, supporters mention over and over again, how much they like to swim in nature and how great it would be to bring people – especially children – closer to the natural environment.

We suspect that it will be more feasible to attempt to raise funds for a natural swimming pool, where the water is cleaned by reed beds (rather than chlorine) and which looks more like a small lake. This is because these are only a fraction of the cost to build and maintain, but this will ultimately depend on the response of the London Borough of Waltham Forest and the City of London or any others funding bodies. A natural pool would also not be seen to be in direct competition to the existing pools in Waltham Forest.

Natural swimming pools are very popular in other parts of Europe. They are healthier because the water is cleaned naturally, rather than by chlorinated water, which has been associated not only with aggravating, but also causing skin and lung conditions as well as other more severe illnesses. Natural swimming pools are also environmentally friendly with a tiny footprint and look nice all year round – minimal expenditure is required in winter. It has also been shown that swimming in nature has a positive effect on mental health and even creativity.

The other theme that runs through the comments is that people think it would be great for the community. One only has to only look at the Hampstead ponds to see, how outdoor swimming can bring people together, which is what we envisage for a possible outdoor swimming facility in Waltham Forest.

We are currently looking at similar projects to learn from them. Please let us know if you have any feedback, ideas or experience with community projects on outdoorswimWF@gmail.com

Thanks again for your support and best wishes,

The Walthamstow Open Water Swimmers