Welcome to the website of Gymnos

Gymnos is being closed down at the end of this financial year which is on 31st  March. It is therefore no longer possible to join. The following is an extract from the latest newsletter sent to members:-

Dear Member,

Some may be aware that I took over the running of Gymnos from my predecessor in 1988 when I took early retirement. I have therefore been at the helm for 22 years and the club has been in operation for longer than that. I am now 83 and like the rest of you am not getting any younger.

In the early days there was very little opportunity for naturism in a same-sex environment and so our swimming fulfilled a very real need. Although in origin a swimming club, the social side of our activities, which was always held in the members’ homes, developed in the early 90’s to the point where we have had an event almost every weekend ever since. The swimming became ever more popular at the same time and at its height we ran three sessions a week and trained our own lifeguards. Incredible as it may now seem, the Tuesday evening session sometimes attracted more than 90 swimmers.

Unfortunately we have in recent years seen a marked decline due to a combination of factors. Swimming numbers gradually became smaller, probably because of the growth, at least in part, of the sauna culture. As fewer younger members joined, it became more difficult to recruit new lifeguards willing to be trained and as fewer members attended the sessions, the cost of the training became disproportionate. Nevertheless, we soldiered on until one by one, and for various reasons, we lost our swimming venues. The very last of these, which was never operated by Gymnos but by our friends at Gay London Swimmers, with whom in later years we had a reciprocal arrangement, closed last year.

Our social activities have struggled as well. The growth of the internet as a medium for making new contacts may be something to do with it, together with the loss of the swimming, but fewer members are now attracted to us and our age profile has increased considerably. Very recently, it has become more difficult to find sufficient party hosts to maintain our weekly events and the existing hosts have been more put upon.

Mark has been assisting me for most of the last 22 years and some while ago we came to the conclusion that it was time to hand over to a new team. Unfortunately, after two years of searching without success for anyone with enough time and the necessary skills to take over the running of Gymnos, I am sorry to tell you that Mark and I have decided to wind up the club at the end of this financial year on 31st March 2010.

Please do not therefore send any subscription renewals for 2010.

The original welcome letter is still left here so that people can see what Gymnos used to do. It read` as follows:-

Welcome to the website of Gymnos; a naturist group that used to organizes nude swimming but still organises socials for men (18 and over) in London UK. At present, owing to the shortage of swimming facilities in London, we have no swimming facilities of our own. 

We have a social event most weekends and very occasionally they extend over a longer period. The social events diary is published bi-monthly together with the newsletter and contact list. All these documents are confidential and only members have access to them. The social events may only be attended by members. We know this may seem strange to those from USA but our volunteer hosts are only prepared to act as such if both the knowledge about the party and access to the party is restricted to members.

Many of the social events are just a social event with members bringing bottles/cans and the host providing a meal. The meals can vary from a full cordon bleu feast (fairly rare) to a few snacks. At some events there is a theme and probably the most popular and frequent theme is massage. However sometimes photography or body painting is the chosen theme. One recently combined photography and mud wrestling. We are dependant upon the hosts to arrange the parties and thus they are all different.

CAMBERWELL LEISURE CENTRE HAS CLOSED FOR RENOVATION UNTIL JULY 2010

We have an information telephone line on 020-8988 0152; where you can hear a recorded message of information about our swimming times and social activities. (Mark may answer the phone if he happens to be in). You can leave a message on the answer phone if you want further information to be sent to you. We can be contacted on e-mail at gymnos_naturists(at)lycos.com and gymnosuk(at)lycos.com  For (at) read @

On the other pages you will find an application form that you can complete and print or you can download it and complete it afterwards. In either case it should be posted to Gymnos, BM Box 5147, London, WC1N 3XX together with payment. Payment should be by cheque or postal order payable to Gymnos. You will also find an introductory letter which is a copy of the one sent out to those that seek information by snail-mail; a copy of our codes of practice and some frequently asked questions. On our links page you will find some other sites over which we have no control and  with which we do not necessarily agree but which may be of interest to you.

Many of our members are non-swimmers or live too far away to be able to join us at the swimming sessions, but many attend our social events. These usually take place each weekend in the home of a member who acts as the host for the event. The details of our social events are only available to members. A few of our non-swimmers attend the swimming sessions but remain in the shallow end of the pool. Some learn to swim and others treat the swim session as a social event.

Some of our members make use of our Contact List scheme as a means of making contact with like-minded members. It is also useful for those who do not want to swim or live too far from London to be able to join in our other events. The Contact List may only be received by those members who appear within it. To join the contact list scheme send £4 together with your renewal subscription of £10 (plus £2 if having newsletters and contact list sent by post). At the same time send us the wording you wish to use in the contact list for yourself (maximum 75 words). The entry usually includes some information about yourself and your interests together with some description of the sort of person with whom you wish to make contact or meet. All entries start with the member’s first name: his year of birth and an indication of where he lives. Members are free to include their phone number and/or address and/or e-mail address, if they wish, although all entries are given a box number. You will only receive copies of the contact list that include your entry.

We have a strict policy of never disclosing members addresses, phone numbers or e-mail addresses to anyone whatsoever. On the rare occasion when there may seem to be a valid reason for needing such information we may offer to forward a letter or message to the member concerned. Then it is up to that member whether or not he chooses to reply!

Some members do not disclose their addresses or phone numbers to us. This is acceptable if they wish but then, of course, they cannot receive their membership card. The normal method of despatch of newsletters and contact list is now by e-mail. If you are unable to use e-mail an extra charge is made for having them sent by post. Members may suspend delivery of newsletters temporarily for whatever reason but they will then of course lose most of the benefits of membership.

The details of our two types of membership: Full Membership and Full Membership plus use of Contact List are described in the introductory letter and application form. The subscription rates also appear in the introductory letter and the application form.

Mark and Brian are in the process of retiring from running Gymnos having done the task for nearly twenty years.  At present we are still trying to find someone to take over the running of Gymnos as previous attempts to do so have failed.

Website updated 17th January 2010.