'Parson’s Pleasure and the Ponds' presents a new series of wood engravings by the printmaker Duncan Montgomery, among archive material on the history of freshwater bathing, curated by the cultural historian George Townsend. There is a particular focus on Parson’s Pleasure, a men’s bathing place on the river Cherwell in Oxford, active from the 17th century to 1992; and the bathing ponds on Hampstead Heath in London. The prints explore the lost meanings of these sites through figurative and landscape wood engraving, while referencing early photography and Greek statuary.

This work marks the culmination of a collaboration over three years, including a work-in-progress exhibition, Here: A Fair Resting-Place (2023) in association with the Peltz Gallery at Birkbeck, University of London. Parson’s Pleasure and the Ponds will travel on from the North Wall Arts Centre to the Highgate Gallery in London (7-20 June 2024).

Here's a BBC Podcast New Storytellers: 'The Bathing Place' with curator George Townsend
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000y5f8