It's the river's first official swim spot. So why is Thames Water threatening the 'Costa del Ham'?

Sunday afternoon, 30°C, and the stretch of the Thames between Teddington Lock and Kingston is chock full of people thrilled to escape the heat. Kids splash around with pool donuts in the silty water, while on the banks women in sunglasses squint at paperbacks and teens squeal as they listen to “Mr Brightside” crooning from a tinny speaker. 

Locals used to joke that it was “Costa del Ham”, but who’s laughing now? There’s hundreds of people hanging out in the Thames today, swimming, paddleboarding and kayaking, in water that usually tests a lot cleaner than most Londoners think. Thanks to the work of local campaigners, as of May this year the once “biologically dead” river has official bathing water status. This means the water will now be regularly tested so swimmers can feel more confident about when to go in and when to steer clear, as well as additional legal powers to go after polluters.

“It feels like an oasis here,” says Elena López, who’s come to London’s only official swim spot in the Thames for the first time today. López, a 20-something with a neat brown bob who’s cycled here from Putney, has been chilling in her blue bucket hat and black swimsuit, enjoying her sci-fi novel as the sun bakes overhead. “I love swimming, so when I heard this place had received swim status I said great, let’s go.”

But as it turns out, the fight for bathing water status was just the warm-up: the real battle is happening now. If Thames Water get their way, much of this bank and the green behind it will be dominated by an abstraction plant, a sewage recycling system which will pull water from the river during droughts — and replace it with treated effluent. 

Swimmers vs sewage

Swimmers joke that you don't recognise people with their clothes on, but Marlene Lawrence, who founded the Teddington Bluetits social swim group in 2021, is an exception. With her cheery demeanour, blonde ponytail and lobster print swimsuit, she’s often manning a treat-laden trolley, handing out tea and cake to swimmers as they stand beaming in their dry-robes, worries temporarily washed away.