Well, would you? Probably not in its present, deleterious state, but what if it were safe? Now, perhaps?
For a month, the people of Paris, France, have been enjoying something akin to Highgate Ponds with a view of the Eiffel Tower, an experience made possible by a €1.4 billion clean-up initiated for last year’s Olympics. Although it may be tempting to picture rat-infested waters in the city that gave us Ratatouille, the project has not been half-hearted. Parisians are ecstatic. Londoners — and Britons — are jealous.
Demand for Thames swimming in urban areas is high. Freshwater bathing in the UK has exploded in popularity post-pandemic, despite the deterioration of our rivers through sewage spills and poor maintenance. Copenhagen in Denmark and Vienna in Austria, which regularly top the Economist Intelligence Unit’s index of the world’s most liveable cities, offer in the Harbour and the Danube waterways that are popular with citizens in search of a healthy, refreshing pastime.
People over here want the same. Last year, London Mayor Sadiq Khan pledged to ‘clean up our waterways too and build a plan to make rivers swimmable again within 10 years’. Yet the Port of London Authority insists that the tidal Thames, which flows from Teddington Lock out to the North Sea, will never be safe to swim in. Some have thrown caution to the wind (so-called ‘guerilla swimmers’ regularly team up for laps between Kew and Hammersmith Bridges), but goodwill alone won’t cut it. A clean-up is needed and will come at a heavy cost. The Thames is grislier than the Seine, which is quainter, narrower and easier to tame
The tidal Thames has welcomed lidos before: from 1875–85, people could take a dip in an indoor pool along Victoria Embankment. A 2021 study by architectural practice Studio Octopi showed how a Thames Baths pipedream could become reality, with modular pools opposite Old City Hall that could rise and fall with the tide and use reedbeds to filter out junk. Progress has been hampered by chronic under-investment and massive debt (Thames Water owes a staggering £19 billion). Many will write off the situation as Kafkaesque, but some in politics believe there’s a clear solution: bringing water companies back into public ownership. With such demand for swimming in the Thames, this is a landmark proposition.
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'Love, desire, faith, passion, intimacy, God, spiritual consciousness, curiosity and adventure': The world of Stanley Spencer, a very English visionaryStanley Spencer’s talent for seeing the spiritual in the everyday, his stirring sense for the wonder of Nature and his love for the landscapes of Berkshire and Suffolk shaped his art, as Matthew Dennison reveals.
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Waldorf Astoria New York review: The Midtown hotel where Frank Sinatra once partied and the salad of the same name was invented emerges from a decade-long renovationOwen Holmes checks into the Waldorf Astoria New York hotel.
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Yorkshire’s bravest and most charming gentleman — the Airedale terrierBred on Yorkshire’s riverbanks to face otters, snakes and even enemy fire, the Airedale has gone from the trenches of war to the hearts and homes of presidents and movie stars.
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Dangerous beasts (and where to find them): Britain's animals that are best left aloneJohn Lewis-Stempel provides a miscellany of our otherwise benign land’s more fearsome critters.
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A true gent lets his hair down on a Wednesday: Inside our Savile Row party to celebrate the publication of Gentleman's Life'The party marked the ten-year anniversary of Gentleman's Life and it was, fittingly, a party for the ages.'
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From the Caribbean with love: The other James Bond who wrote the definitive guide to tropical birdsThe Caribbean plays host to a brilliant spectrum of colourful avians, says John Lewis-Stempel, as he revels in a birdwatcher’s paradise. Illustrations by Annabelle King.
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Best in class: This year's Georgian Group Architectural Award winners revealedThe Georgian Group’s Architectural Awards, sponsored by Savills, attracted another outstanding crop of entries this year. We reveal the winners, as chosen by a panel of judges chaired by Country Life's Architectural Editor, John Goodall.
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‘Pope Paul V remains a popular effigy today, and gets blown up in Lewes most years’: A five minute guide to England’s wackiest Bonfire Night celebrationsThe market town of Lewes in East Sussex has not one, not two, but seven bonfire societies and its celebrations have been labelled the ‘only proper Guy Fawkes night left’.
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Amelia Thomas: The woman who learned to talk to animalsAmelia Thomas, the real-life Dr Dolittle who spent years decoding how animals talk, joins James Fisher on the Country Life podcast.
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How to keep your dogs — and other wildlife — safe on Bonfire NightAnyone who’s ever owned a dog will remember, remember the 5th of November — not just for the Gunpowder Plot, but for the nervous wrecks it turns our dogs into.
