Downstream

‘Killer river’ or not, the
Thames at Richmond has
long been beloved of
swimmers, from Dickens’
joyful head-first plunge in
1839 to the formation of the
town’s swimming club in
1883, from record breakers
John Arthur Jarvis and Lily
Smith at the turn of the
century to Kevin Murphy and
Alison Streeter’s endurance
swims in the 1980s. Now that
I’m about two-thirds of the