The Londoner: Pond swimmers fear City charges

In today The Londoner: Pond swimmers fear City charges | Jada Pinkett Smith's talk show screening | Bercow's favourite mouser | Gavin Williamson's pet tarantula
Facing charges: swimmers at the Ponds
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2 August 2019

Wild swimmers fear a draconian payment system will be introduced at Hampstead Heath Ponds after it was revealed to a consultative committee that the park’s annual £6 million budget is under review.

The City of London Corporation, which manages Hampstead Heath, told The Londoner today that payment to swim in the ponds was, in fact, already compulsory, and has been since 2012, but admitted “it’s not... er, enforced very well”.

The City of London is under pressure to find £30 million by 2020 to fulfil “an ambitious programme of activity and projects to deliver a thriving City”.

Robert Sutherland Smith, the chair of the United Swimmers Association (USA), “a caucus that goes into action when the occasion arises” to defend the use of the ponds, tells The Londoner: “The Hampstead bathing ponds are self-evidently beautiful, but it is their long established freedom that constitutes the spirit of these places.”

Sutherland Smith wrote in a letter to the Ham & High warning against the corporation using “Hampstead Heath as its north London cash cow, to be milked to cross-subsidise new spending in the Square Mile”.

Sutherland Smith also claims that existing charges ought to be considered “voluntary contributions under the Hampstead Heath Act of 1871”. The Londoner, however, was unable to find anyone at the City of London who was au fait with the intricacies of the 1871 Hampstead Heath Act.

A corporation spokesperson told The Londoner today: “We are committed to making the most efficient and effective use of our resources for the benefit of the City, London and the nation as a whole.”

Not all locals agreed with Sutherland Smith. One said: “The idea that it will cross-subsidise activities or projects in the City looks highly unlikely to me.”

Highly sensitive... 250 years ago

Agent Smith: Adam Smith (Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
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Jesse Norman has revealed the three questions he was asked by Sue Gray, the Government’s ethics adviser, when he published his biography of Adam Smith last year. “Does it name any British agents in the field?” Norman replied: “Well, it’s a book about an 18th-century political philosopher.”

Next: “Is it disobliging about any of our allies?” “No, not really.”

Last: “Does it reveal any contents of the Official Secrets Act?”

Norman tells Iain Dale’s podcast he replied: “No. Unless you were talking about the Budget of 1766.” Niche.

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The late Karl Lagerfeld was fashion’s austere architect of taste — though Kristen Stewart says that the designer wasn’t as “scary” as he seemed. “He was incredibly inviting — insanely, shockingly unpretentious,” the actor tells Vanity Fair. “He liked what he liked because he liked it. He was a fancy motherf****r, but it was true to him.”

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A painting in the Wellington Collection long thought to be the work of a minor north Italian artist may in fact be a Titian, or by his workshop. A date discovered on the painting during restoration, The Art Newspaper reports, ruled out the assumed artist, Alessandro Varotari, who would have been 13 at the time.

Margaret drags her feet on Tarantino set

Cold Feet: Margaret Qualley  (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)

Margaret Qualley appears in Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but there was something she had to get over first: her feet appearing on film. “We had a big debate about it, me, Quentin and Brad [Pitt], with them trying to be like, ‘You’re fine’, and me being like, ‘No, guys, really, look, these are not good,’” Qualley tells Indie Wire. But she changed her mind, “did the foot thing” and now has no regrets. Best foot forward, The Londoner supposes...

SW1A

Jacob Rees-Mogg (below) says “somebody called for me to resign as soon as I stepped to the Despatch Box to answer questions as the new Leader of the House”. Rees-Mogg adds: “To talk about resigning before one has barely got one’s feet under the desk is a bit premature.” This is the same Jacob Rees-Mogg who, after Theresa May won a Tory vote of no confidence in December, said she should resign anyway.

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Mouse proud: John Bercow (Photo: Karwai Tang/Getty Images)
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John Bercow popped into the Standard’s offices yesterday and, naturally, The Londoner pounced. Does the Speaker keep a cat in Parliament? Yes, Bercow said, adding that Order is “very good at catching mice”. They keep their claws sharp in the Speaker’s House.

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And what of another pet, Cronus, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson’s tarantula? An aide confirms that Cronus will stay in his South Staffordshire constituency indefinitely. There’s probably enough spinning in Westminster already.

Red Table - it's the talk of the town...

Hot topic: Vanessa White, Jada Pinkett Smith, Clara Amfo and Nicola Roberts (Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Facebook Watch)

A screening of Jada Pinkett Smith’s Emmy-nominated online talk show Red Table Talk last night drew guests including Nicola Roberts, Clara Amfo and Vanessa White. “I’m very lucky that I have really difficult, transparent conversations with my family,” Pinkett Smith says of the show, which tackles issues from polyamory to pornography.

Across town, partygoers flocked to Annabel’s for the launch of Mabel’s new album, High Expectations. Among the guests was Brooklyn Beckham. Soon after The Londoner broke the news that the aspiring photographer had started an internship with Rankin, we bumped into him on the dancefloor of MNKY HSE and asked him how he was finding it. “Hard,” was his word of choice. This morning, though, a source at Rankin claimed he was “doing really well”. Meanwhile, at Selfridges, shopping app Depop launched its three-month pop-up store, supported (unsurprisingly) by Depop’s CEO, Maria Raga, and writer Chidera Eggerue.

Quote of the Day

Fabulous finery: Harry Styles (Photo by Handout/Helene Marie Pambrun via Getty Images)

​'A bunch of sequins makes you feel good, and then you want to play'

Harry Styles loves wearing loud clothes on stage

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