Truly Urban: Swimming in the Thames.

The Urban Swimmer goes down the docks...

Last July The Urban Swimmer got the opportunity to swim in the Thames. He took part in the London leg of one of the British Gas sponsored Great Swim events. These events usually take the form of an open water, one mile swim in lakes, reservoirs, lochs and areas of great natural beauty such as Windimere. The London leg however takes place in a rather contrasting environment, the industrial wasteland and urban dereliction of the London Docklands. The now vacant Royal Victoria Dock to be precise. Still, at the time TUS had probably never swum as far as a mile, much less in a wetsuit, and it seemed like a challenge worth taking. Plus if you've ever seen the Royal  Docks, the place is daunting in its scale, and TUS could not resist dipping his toe.

Spot the Urban Swimmer. Clue: he is wearing an orange hat.

The Royal Victoria Dock is a site with quite some heritage. Nowadays it serves a largely ornamental function sitting next to the appallingly ugly and horrifically spelled ExCeL Conference Centre (soon to be a venue in the London Olympics). The docks are occasionally used for events like the London Triathlon, however in its hay day (1850s-1950s), when London was the world's busiest port, the docks serviced huge steam powered cargo ships. While reading about the docks TUS came across an interesting picture from the London Illustrated news of March 1879 showing the 17th Lancers loading their horses on board ships to fight in the Zulu Wars. You can also see what Charles Dickens, Jr (the son of the great novelist) wrote about the docks in his Dictionary of the Thames (1881) , check out the fancy-pants first class salon. During the Blitz the docks and the nearby Silvertown area specifically came under horrific levels of bombing. TUS is reminded of the Blitz episode of The World at War when an east end man describes seeing the whole of Silvertown area appearing to be on fire. Sadly TUS can't find that particular clip online, but he did find this excellent German propaganda film showing how specifically the docks were targeted. It's arguable that not since 1666 and the Great Fire of London has an event so dramatically effected how London looks at a city.

TUS has no idea how deep the docks are, but as he swum across the watery depths it occurred to him that it must be a long way down. He did not find the sign below particularly comforting...

The Great Swim organisers arranged a course starting from a pebbled beach start at one end of the docks, a three-quarter circuit around some giant floating buoys and arrival at a steeply slopping ramp. The water itself is murky grey/brown sediment filled stuff which is dark and has zero visibility when your head is in the water. The water has a surprisingly salty tang, though I wouldn't recommend drinking too much of it...yuk! Anyway TUS is not sure if he really can recommend swimming in the docks, you wont see much, and the surrounding area is hardly picturesque. On the other hand it rare in the city to find such a large expanse of water, and if you've never been in there you might be tempted. This year's event in on May 26th and at time of writing there were still lots of spaces left.