I saw someone swim the Thames today at Wapping

[Onket]

teh salmon are stockies effectively - taken from the indigenous North Tyne migratory stock IIRC> there is some debate as to how effective they have been, bu there are reports that Salmon ave been seen upstream at locks and passes- whether these are the result f the stocking or "lost" wild ones has yet to be proved. There are brown trout in the thames, more succesful than the salmon, but again, the result of restocking

the Thames is pretty clean though - some work to do, but a far cry form the de facto biologically dead status of a few decades ago

Ho ho ho.

 

[London_Calling]

You can only be charged with wasting police time if you contacted them yourself and told them you had aliens in your bathroom or something. There's no offence (yet) of doing stupid things. 'spose he might get a Darwin Award.

 

[tim]

How are you going to walk across if the water covers most people's heads?

Yeah, people seem to be under the impression the Thames is dirty when in fact it's quite clean.

So Thames water spin-doctors tell us. They convenientl forget all the occasions that heavyrain leads Mogden to overflow

 

[wiskey]

I nearly drowned in the Thames at Caversham when I was about 15.

 

[JHE]

There's no offence (yet) of doing stupid things.

No, but it's easy to see why the river police or whatever they are called would want to express an opinion or two to and about the reckless swimmer even if no crime at all has been committed.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

I jumped in the Thames somewhere around Kingston after Kingston Green Fair in 2003 after spending the day drinking and doing mushies. We had all been standing around by the river, my brother joked about going swimming, and I just went 'OK, I'll give it a go' and took off my shoes and went in for a swim



Luckily it wasn't too cold an evening, but two coppers did come up to my brother and say I had to get straight out.



It wasn't even the booze etc, it was just the moment. I'd been swimming a lot and wanted to show I could do it.

I do really daft things like that every now and then and yet procrastinate for yonks on other far more important things

 

[Cid]

I've just found the *actual* RoSPA figures for 2002...

42 Drownings in the Thames

Oddly, the same number drowned in 'Home Baths'. How does that happen? Unsupervised children? Drink/drugs? Slip, bang head, pass out?

Friend of a friend died in same way as Natasha Collins, ie in a bath of scalding water after a cocaine OD; causes hyperthermia (opposite of hypo) although surely that would make you want to lower your body temp. Not sure what the actual cause of death would be recorded as. Another friend of a friend died on ketamine in the bath, it's happened a few times I think. In that case probably suicide, but I imagine the cause would be drowning.

 

[pseudonarcissus]

The last thing I saw was him standing on the shore remonstrating with the police in the launch who presumably wanted to arrest him.

Thames Division of the Met Police are known as the Ghurkas...they take no prisoners....you just get a jolly good telling off....or I did for rowing without lights once.

 

[pseudonarcissus]

Cleanest city river in Europe, FACT.

from the Tideway Slug, a rowing blog...

Those who have been unfortunate enough to have attempted an outing on the Tideway over the last couple of weeks will be forgiven for balking at the prospect of rowing on an open sewer... Whilst those who have gone out should perhaps question their sanity.

It may be 150 years since the 'Great Stink', finally forced the parliament of the time to invest in the necessary infrastructure to clean up the river Thames, however, we can’t help but wonder why Thames Water and the Environment Agency seem so dedicated to mark the anniversary by recreating the conditions of the late 1850s.

Thanks to Thames Water spewing around a million tonnes of unprocessed shit into the Thames from their Mogden sewage works in Isleworth over the last fortnight -- and all with the blessing of the ‘Environment’ Agency – there was a bank to bank carpet of human faeces, almost thick enough to walk across, on show last week. "

 

[Relahni]

I knew a bloke who tried to kill himself by jumping in the Thames. Amazingly he survived.

He jumped in wearing a puffa jacket and couldn't sink. Just floating in his puffa jacket. He was gutted but saw the funny side and sorted his life out after that.

 

[Pie 1]

Cleanest city river in Europe, FACT.

How do they figure that?

I go swimming in a river in the centre of Zurich almost daily atm, you can see to the bottom - it's like tap water.

 

[Oswaldtwistle]

I knew a bloke who tried to kill himself by jumping in the Thames. Amazingly he survived.

He jumped in wearing a puffa jacket and couldn't sink. Just floating in his puffa jacket. He was gutted but saw the funny side and sorted his life out after that.

As someone who has had various mental health difficulties* in the past, I think that is the funniest thing I've read for a while.




* for which I'm now getting help, I might add.

 

[TopCat]

I used to swim as a kid up by Battersea bridge and never got hassle from the police. I would not do it now though...

 

[Miss-Shelf]

Nankers grandad said there was a roman walkway under the thames near the houses of parliment

(he used to service the police boats at wapping)