Downstream

of his aunt who’d won the
race from Richmond Lock to
Blackfriars in 1911.’ Steve is
also part of a group who
swim in the Thames roughly
every fortnight, from the
Black Lion pub in
Hammersmith, half an hour
before high tide, to Chiswick
Pier. ‘On a sunny evening it’s
idyllic, there are nice houses
to look at, and with a strong
tide and a good stroke you
can do it in a quarter of an