King of the Thames: a classic river swim gets a fresh twist

Simon Griffiths takes to the Thames to experience SwimQuest’s new 3km swim from Hampton Court to Kingston

Cigarette Island is a spectacular place to enter the Thames. Directly ahead of you is Hampton Court Palace. On your left is Hampton Court Bridge. And if you look right, the direction you’re about to swim, you see the river rolling towards London. I made sure I took all of this in before the start signal sounded, while I was head-up breaststroking my way towards the start line for the King of the Thames.

The King of the Thames Swim is a revived and refreshed version of the Hampton Court to Kingston Swim that last took place more than 10 years ago. The swim has been relaunched by swim holiday company SwimQuest, and they’ve added their own special touches.

It’s local to me and in a stretch of the river I know well and have swum often, so I was delighted to get the opportunity to experience what they would do with the event. I wasn’t disappointed.

SwimQuest describe the event as: “An iconic, non-competitive swim designed to connect people and place.” This was already a change from the old event under Human Race, which had a strong competitive element. Other differences included splitting the event into morning and afternoon sessions, and finishing on Raven’s Ait, an island just upstream of Kingston Bridge.

Having two sessions worked well. It meant registration was less crowded and people travelling to the event from further afield could avoid an early alarm. It also allowed some people to do the swim twice.

Finishing on Raven’s Ait was a highlight. Partly it’s just fun to finish a swim on an island. But the main attraction was that it brought all the swimmers together for a celebratory picnic with live music. It was a lovely opportunity to reflect on the swim and chat to other swimmers.

For its first year, King of the Thames was blessed with beautiful weather and extraordinary water temperatures in the mid-20s. This meant even the most leisurely non-wetsuit swimmers didn’t need to worry about getting cold. In fact, we saw a number of swimmers turning over onto their backs and floating as they approached the island, as if they wanted to prolong the swim as long as possible.

The non-competitive approach also meant the swim appealed to lots of head-up and chatty breaststroke swimmers – and why not? If you’re swimming past one of the world’s most famous palaces, it’s worth pausing to soak up the view.

But the event was timed, so swimmers with a more competitive nature had the chance to race if they wanted – and I have to confess I put on a bit of a sprint at the finish.

At 3km, the swim is long enough to be worth making the effort to get to, but not so far that it’s daunting. There is also a little assistance from the current. The route hugs the left bank of the river as you swim downstream. Once past the palace and its golden gates, it winds along Home Park, but you will mostly see trees and shrubs, which line the tow path.

If you look right, the view is more varied as you pass houses with spectacular gardens, Thames Ditton Island and rows of moored boats.

It’s best to swim a little away from the bank to avoid entangling yourself with overhanging branches, but you need to stay in the marked channel on the left of the river. Kayakers will redirect you if you stray out of the closed section of the river.

Water quality concerns

But however amazing the views, we can’t – and shouldn’t – hide from the fact that the Thames has a bad reputation for being polluted. And not without cause. One reason the original event stopped was because of water quality concerns.

But our understanding of water quality has changed since then.

We now have much better data. We can see where there are combined sewer overflows, and when they discharge. We also have citizen science groups that monitor water quality and share their results on the Water Testing River Thames website.

Finally, just downstream, we find London’s newest bathing water spot – The Thames at Ham and Kingston. This means the Environment Agency regularly tests for e.coli and intestinal enterococci – two bacteria associated with faecal contamination.

This data tells us two things relevant to swimmers. First, the water quality is often excellent. Second, it can deteriorate dramatically after heavy rain.

SwimQuest also monitored the water quality weekly in the three weeks leading up to the event. While this won’t tell us about bacteria levels on the day, it provided a lot of reassurance. These showed e.coli at between 21 and 250 cfu/100ml and intestinal enterococci between 9 and 60. The thresholds for excellent under the Bathing Water Regulations for inland waters are less than 500 for e.coli and less than 200 for intestinal enterococci (but note standards are based on seasonal averages not spot samples).

Brave decision

Nevertheless, hosting an event in the Thames is courageous. Not only does SwimQuest have to contend with the river’s reputation, but there’s also always the risk the weather will turn against them – although I know they have contingency plans in place.

Those who turned up this year enjoyed the Thames at its best. I certainly loved my swim. I hope this event becomes a permanent fixture in the open water calendar.

Find out more and register for next year’s swim: kingofthethames.com

Practicalities

Hampton Court station is a five-minute walk from the start. It also has a large car park. SwimQuest transport your bag to the finish for you so there is no need to return to the start. Kingston town centre is a 10-minute walk from the finish and there are plenty of transport options from there, including buses back to Hampton Court Station if you need. I used a Forest bike to get to the start and another to get home after the swim.

More information on water quality in the Thames: watertestingriverthames.co.uk