Save Our Ponds ‘LOCKED OUT’ Demo, Hampstead Heath, 20 September 2020, for Ours To Save

“Lockdown ignited a national appreciation for nature… We were talking about, using and appreciating green spaces more than ever: park visits were up 67% in the UK (when they were open) and over half of people said they appreciated green spaces and their benefits for wellbeing more than ever,” said Ellen Miles, founder of Nature is a Human Right, to Max Sharp in a recent on environmental inequality and the human need to be in nature.

Perhaps it was unsurprising, then, that swimmers met with a surprise price hike at London's iconic Hampstead Heath bathing ponds were not going to go down without a fight. Forum '71's Save Our Ponds campaign was launched in July 2020 when the ponds re-opened after lockdown, ft. a 100% rise in price of entry. In direct contravention of the common law right of free access to all parts of the Heath, Forum '71 say, the City of London Corporation has raised the price of entry from a voluntary £2 to a compulsory £4.

Ours to Save's resident photographer Finley Kamen went down to Hampstead Heath to document the protestors' 'LOCKED OUT' demo last Sunday 20th September. The following pictures capture this encroachment on London's public natural space in microcosm – with placards, bicycles, fences and warning tape clashing with blue skies and deep green water.

- Ours To Save