Where to swim gay in London

One club with more than 80 hours of coached pool time a month, a £5 trans and non-binary swim on the second Sunday of every month, a Friday session in Lewisham, and three natural ponds on the Heath. The catch is that the club's swimming waitlist has been closed since March 2026. Here is what you can get into this autumn, and what you are queueing for.

Out To Swim

Founded in 1992, a Masters club for adults 18 and over, and the largest of its five branches with more than 300 London members. Swimming is organised into four squads, each booking from a shared timetable. The August 2026 schedule has something every day across nine pools: the London Aquatics Centre in Stratford, Orchard Lisle at Guy's Hospital, the Oasis in Covent Garden, the Castle at Elephant and Castle, Canada Water, Marshall Street in Soho on Saturdays, Pancras Square and the Queen Mother Sports Centre on Sundays, plus London Fields Lido on Tuesdays at 6pm from April to October. Within those, the club runs She/They/Them sessions, a Trans+ and Non-Binary session with its Seahorses water polo group, a Vintage session and a Global Majority session.

The 2026 fee is £684 a year, or £57 a month, with 5% off if you pay the lot in January. Pay as you go is £14.50 a session, though not for lessons. On top sits the Swim England fee, £25.32 a year to train or £52.88 to compete. Do the sum before choosing: £684 is 47 pay-as-you-go sessions with change, so anyone swimming weekly is better off on the annual.

The bar for club training is 400m front crawl, 50m backstroke, 50m breaststroke and 25m butterfly, all without stopping. Below that you go into Lessons, Wednesdays at the Castle and Sundays at Queen Mother. New members get a casual evaluation session with a coach and a few free swims before paying.

The problem: as of March 2026 the London swim training and lessons waitlists are closed. The club hopes to reopen them later in 2026 and asks you not to email to register interest, because they cannot record it. Check outtoswim.org/join.

Water polo: London Orca

The part of the club with a door still ajar. London Orca has an active squad of 80, trains four times a week with 20 to 50 a session, and runs a six-week adult beginners course ending in a friendly. Your first three sessions are free. Sessions (schedule dated November 2025): Tuesdays 8.30pm to 9.30pm and Thursdays 7.30pm to 9pm at the London Aquatics Centre, Fridays 8pm to 9pm at Kentish Town Sports Centre, Saturdays 6pm to 7.30pm at Britannia Leisure Centre, Shoreditch. Beginners were not being accepted "until at least September 2026", which is now; anyone with past experience can register interest and may get in sooner.

Artistic swimming: the Angels

Added in April 2009, the first club in the UK to coach the sport to both men and women, about 20 swimmers of mixed ages and ability. Mondays 7pm to 8.30pm at the Queen Mother Sports Centre, plus a Wednesday slot there that alternates weekly between 7pm and 8pm starts. The waitlist is open. No synchro experience means a six-week beginners course, held once or twice a year; with experience you get a taster session.

Two trans and non-binary swims

The Seahorses, run through London Orca, hold a trans and non-binary swim on the second Sunday of every month at Pancras Square Leisure, 5 Pancras Square, N1C 4AG. £5 on Eventbrite, 18 and over, and you need to manage one or two lengths. Next listed: Sunday 13 September 2026, 3.30pm. Meet at the entrance, then an hour in the pool with Maz, a trans coach from Out To Swim. A first-Monday session at the Oasis is being trialled alongside the trans and non-binary water polo. Updates at @seahorses_ldn.

In Lewisham, Glass Mill Leisure Centre runs a Trans and Gender Diverse swim every Friday, 7.30pm to 8.30pm, in its teaching pool behind privacy blinds, with changing areas opening straight onto poolside. Members and non-members, booked through Better. TAGS, the volunteer group behind trans swimming at Glass Mill, has a website that would not load when checked, so nothing else of theirs is listed here.

Hampstead Heath ponds

Run by the City of London Corporation, with the access policy settled on 31 July 2026: Kenwood Ladies' Pond is open to biological and trans women, Highgate Men's Pond to biological and trans men, the Mixed Pond to everyone. That followed a consultation in which 86% of more than 38,000 respondents backed keeping it that way.

Entry is £5, or £3 for concessions and under 16s, fixed until 31 March 2027. Under 16s and over 60s swim free before 9.30am. From 1 October 2026 the ponds go cashless. A 12-month pond season ticket is £157 (£94 concession) and pays for itself on the 32nd swim.

Hours shorten through autumn. Until 12 September the ponds open at 7am with last entry 6.45pm; 13 September to 10 October, last entry 5.45pm; 11 to 24 October, open 7.30am, last entry 4.45pm; 25 October to 21 November, last entry 2pm; then 7.30am to 2.30pm through to 13 February 2027. Men's and Ladies' are open all year, the Mixed Pond April to October only. Outside late May to early September, everything is drop-in.

The Men's Pond is deep, opaque and for competent swimmers only. No lockers, so bring a floating dry bag or nothing; no snorkels or swim aids, no alcohol, no glass, no speakers. On a hot day the grass bank by the entrance is, as one August 2026 piece put it, "one of the city's main hubs of queer activity". The Ladies' Pond requires a one-piece or bikini, and permits neither topless swimming nor nude sunbathing. Parliament Hill Lido next door, 60m and unheated, is £5 from 28 September with last entry 1pm.

Where to start

Can swim 400m and want a club: register for water polo or artistic swimming now, and watch the Out To Swim join page for the swim waitlist. Trans or non-binary and want a first go: Pancras Square on 13 September, £5. Just want cold water and other gay people: the Men's Pond before 6.45pm this week, £5, no locker.