Downstream

barges or from the steps off
the causeway; others just
waded into the water. ‘No
one had swimming
costumes,’ says Brian, ‘or if
you did then you were lucky.
Mums knitted them and once
they were wet they hung by
your knees, so people didn’t
bother wearing them.’ He
remembers only boys playing
in the Thames and ‘we would
wave at American tourists on
the pleasure boats and they