An annual swim across the Pool of London beside Tower Bridge, south to north, landing at Tower Beach, beneath the Tower of London.

The Thames River: port, sewer, pleasure ground, heart of London. The Pool of London used to be the centre of the Port of London, the apex of trade in this city: its lifeblood.

SWIM THE THAMES will be an inclusive live art event – a celebration of life, of water and our city - that will offer people a new navigation across London, finally closing the North-South divide. We will find a human measure amid some of our most striking landmarks, and forge our own link with the Thames' past, present and future.

Water is the central question of the coming century: how we treat it and share it, who controls it, what our rights are to it. In this city we defend against it with flood barriers or simply take it for granted as a backdrop to our lives. We are reassured on many sides that the river is clean enough to swim in, let's submerge ourselves, dive in together and swim across the tide.

The Thames is a public waterway, and we want the chance to swim it in safety. This is not a proposal for a guerrilla-style swim. This will be an organised group crossing of our river, with all necessary safety measures in place: we are currently putting in place a wide-ranging proposal to satisfy all the health & safety concerns of the Port of London Authority.

To enable this mass swim to happen, we would like to register as much support for the idea as possible, so that we can start the debate that will make this swim a reality. Please click on the link above or below to register your interest in SWIM THE THAMES, and we will keep you updated with information, while keeping all your details confidential.

Just as discussion begins around the new super sewer (why is the Thames still being used as the overflow for all our sewage?), let's look at how we treat our water here now and in the future, with worldwide implications.

SWIM THE THAMES: shipping lanes will close for an hour and trade will pause so that a swimming lane can open up, enabling hundreds of people to live a dream of swimming London, putting humans back at the heart of our city.

It is our water. What do we want for its future?

Amy Sharrocks