Downstream

While swimming races
were mainly held in indoor
baths, in 1891 the Ilex
Swimming Club’s annual
handicap was ‘150 yards
straight away from opposite
Solomon’s Hatch bathing
place’ and twenty-one people
took part. Ilex was founded in
1861, with members from
amateur rowing, yachting,
canoe, cruising, athletic and
football clubs. Its
headquarters were at the