Ten new wild swimming locations should be created in London, report says | London

Ten new wild swimming locations should be created in London, said a report by the London Assembly, to stimulate the cleanliness of the capital’s sailors and increase access to the outside.

Other cities clean their rivers for swimming: Paris opened a bathing site in the Seine in the city center and Chicago directs its first swimming of the river in almost a century.

There are now eight locations in London designated as safe places to swim in nature. None of the sites are on the rivers – all are in quays or ponds. None of the city’s rivers currently reaches “good” statutes in the official tests of the Environment Agency, on the basis of the EU water framework.

The report indicates that the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, should aim to designate four new sites such as bathing water by 2028 and six others by 2034. It recommends that the sites are distributed geographically in the capital if possible, starting with river locations already used for leisure. The Teddington river in southwest London has been highlighted in the report as a place where people are already swimming.

The mayor should seize water pollution as he did with air pollution, the committee said. Khan focused on the breathable air and set up an ultra-bas (Ulez) emission zone program, prohibiting the most polluting vehicles in London. A study estimated that nitrogen dioxide emissions on the roadside are in all 27% more than they would have been without the diagram, and the emissions of small particles from the exhausts of vehicles were 31% lower in London in 2024 that they would have been if Ulez had not been widened in 2023.

The report also suggested that the mayor should play a role in the Board of Thames Water to play the company responsible for cleaning water. He also calls clear advice on water safety for all rivers and London water sites by April 2026, with a “one -stop” page on the Greater London Authority website to link all key information. He indicates that this should be accompanied by regular aquatic safety campaigns and the promotion of safe and supervised places to swim.

The investigation was conducted by the Assembly’s environmental committee in 2024-25, when the new Green Party leader Zack Polanski was president.

Polanski said: “Too many London sailors are destroyed by pollution, leaving them in a terrible state. It is totally unacceptable that none of the London rivers is the necessary or expected standards.

“To achieve this objective, it is important that the mayor brings together all the stakeholders in the capital to ensure that the plan achieves its objective. We call on the mayor to advance this plan by targeting improvements to designate four new sites as swimming by 2028, a clear and tangible target that Londoners can consider progress in the plan.

“If the mayor must reach this ambitious target, we exhort him to ensure that our recommendations are considered to be part of the wider plan, and we can see our waters appreciated by the Londoners for the generations to come.”