Nearly every city is founded around a waterway, yet London rarely discusses the significance of public access to the River Thames, writes Jessica Furseth.
London feels like a different place when you step onto the foreshore of the Thames. Recently, I made my way down via a set of stairs tucked behind the renovated pubs of Wapping, where I walked over fragments of historic brick and sidestepped pools of tar—lasting evidence of the river’s working past. Down here, it’s as if the layers of history that shaped the city are all present at once.
London owes its existence to the Thames, but in terms of river access, it falls short compared to many other European cities. Paris, for example, made the Seine swimmable for the 2024 Olympic Games, following trails blazed by Copenhagen and Amsterdam—both of which have invested decades in cleaning their industrial rivers and sewage systems, making their waterfronts integral to urban life.
The reputation of the London Thames is still marred by its previous status as “biologically dead”
While we often celebrate London’s green spaces—20 percent of the city consists of accessible public parks—our muddy “blue space” is frequently overlooked, even though it could offer much-needed contact with nature and cooler air during London’s increasingly hot summers.
The Thames’s image is still overshadowed by its former label as “biologically dead.” However, over the past 60 years, it has made a remarkable recovery. The river now supports fish and wildlife again, and people even swim in its waters.
This summer, I set out to walk the roughly 50 miles of the Thames Path that wind through London, hoping to deepen my understanding of the city. I wanted to explore its history up close, crossing numerous locks and docks and passing through the old wharves.
The journey began pleasantly, with leafy gravel trails near Hampton Court in West London—I even took a swim. But it quickly became clear that modern urban water access is still aspirational. Time and again, I was forced onto lengthy detours as the Thames Path veered inland—in Brentford, Chiswick, and Wapping—often leaving no view of the river at all.
The north bank of the Thames Path is less frequented partly for this reason, serving as a reminder that urban rivers were once utilitarian rather than recreational. Historically, no one wanted to linger near the industrial debris and sewage that characterized the riverbanks.
Some detours make sense, such as those around the still-busy wharves in Brentford or behind the Victorian homes in Chiswick, which long predate the Thames Path’s designation as a national trail in 1989. But in the Docklands, my patience gave way to frustration, as newly built developments blocked access to the water.
One of the best ways to revive a neglected part of the city is to clean up the river, canal or harbour
Modern planning regulations often require new riverside developments to provide pedestrian walkways, yet I repeatedly encountered plywood barriers and discouraging signage. Many sections of the path are marked as “private walkway,” where public passage is permitted but gated off at night. This only reinforced my conviction as a Londoner to walk alongside my river—so whenever I could, I did so, determinedly but respectfully.
There is progress: more sections of the Thames Path now run directly beside the river than ever before. For instance, the route now passes the new Fulham football stadium and, in the City of London, the historic Queenhithe stretch has been reconstructed for pedestrian access. The new footbridge at Dukes Meadow is another highlight, curving out over the water to offer a scenic passage beneath Barnes Bridge.
Revitalizing a neglected part of the city often begins with cleaning up its waterways. People are naturally drawn to water.
London features several regeneration zones along the Thames—Southbank is the most successful, with ongoing developments in Chelsea, Nine Elms, Canada Water, and across the Docklands. Yet the strong tides of the central Thames pose challenges for those wishing to bring people closer to the water.
When urban developers talk about “activating” the river, the achievements of Paris, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam go beyond creating walkways and green spaces. They have made their rivers swimmable, a powerful sign that city waters are clean and accessible to all. Achieving this took decades in France, Denmark, and the Netherlands, because cleaning a city’s stretch of river means addressing pollution upstream—including industrial waste, agricultural runoff, and sewage. But it can be done.
In Munich, the emerald waters of the River Isar now attract crowds on warm days, offering swift but shallow currents for safe swimming—thanks to modified banks and purified water. The Isar Beach has become a communal space for the city. Similarly, Vienna’s Pier 22 area draws people with promenades, parks, outdoor workspaces, and steps leading directly into the Danube.
This city – and every other – would not exist were it not for the water
Gaining official approval can take time. In Oslo, early floating harbour saunas had to relocate repeatedly to avoid seizure, but the practice eventually caught on and is now promoted as a key attraction by the city’s tourism board.
In Berlin, bureaucracy still hampers efforts to make use of a 1.8-kilometre stretch of the Spree canal in the city centre. Boats are prohibited, making it a potentially ideal swimming spot for locals—if access were improved.
To achieve Thames access in Central London similar to the Seine in Paris, the tidal nature of the river means a solution like New York’s under-construction +Pool—a floating swimming pool that uses filtered river water—may be the answer. Mayor Sadiq Khan has pledged to make the Thames “swimmable” by 2035. In the meantime, Londoners already have places to swim in river water, such as Teddington Lock, the Royal Docks, and Canary Wharf.
We are finally moving beyond seeing the Thames solely as a polluted transport artery to be avoided. Walking the Thames Path out to the sea this summer, watching the river widen and strengthen, I was reminded that this city, like all others, owes its existence to its waterway
