The River Thames has been a favorite bathing spot for centuries, but it was the Victorian era that saw the birth of organized river racing. The long distance amateur championship of Great Britain attracted competitors from all over the world, while thousands gathered on wharves and barges to watch teenage champions like Agnes Beckwith and Emily Parker.
Soon floating baths were built in London; people swam at official bathing pools and islands at Oxford, Reading and Henley, dived off pontoons at Kingston, played at temporary lidos in Richmond. Swimming clubs for men and women were formed all along the river, and by the 1930s the Thames had become a seaside resort for families, with beaches at the Tower of London, Greenwich and Grays.
Then in 1957 the river was declared biologically dead, organized racing was largely over, and by the 1970s swimming in the Thames was seen as unusual and dangerous. But in the past decade the huge resurgence in 'wild swimming', along with the formation of new open water clubs, means that over 10,000 people now take part in organized Thames swimming events every year.
The book covers the stories of legendary swimmers like Annette Kellerman, who came to swimming as a cure for rickets and went on to swim some of the great rivers of Europe, and Captain Matthew Webb, the first man to successfully swim the Channel unaided, who used the Thames as his training ground.
It also tells the stories of forgotten champions like Jules Gautier, Lily Smith and Mercedes Gleitze, as well as interviews with every major long distance Thames swimmer since the 1980s, with Channel champions, internationally known athletes, charity fundraisers and TV celebrities.
