Downstream

annual aquatic festival was
conducted . . . with even more
than the usual spirit, and
passed off with the
accustomed eclat . . . the
swimming, considering the
state of the water, was most
excellent’ and ‘there was the
usual laughter splitting
walking the greasy bowspit
for a pig in a box’.
In May 1894 the Southend
Swimming Club was formed
and it ran an annual long-