• Zone 3: Kew Bridge to Putney Pier

Description

Did you know...?

• The University Boat Race, a 4 mile 374 yard (approx 7km) race from Putney to Mortlake, is rowed by crews of eights from Oxford University (the Dark Blues) and Cambridge University (the Light Blues). It lasts about 18 minutes and has been held in late March or early April almost every year since 1829.
• The romantic poet and visionary thinker, Lord Byron swam three miles from Lambeth Bridge to Blackfriars Bridge. Nowadays, the force of the tides can be treacherous even for very strong swimmers.
• The nine hundred metre Great River Swim goes from Chiswick Pier to Chiswick Eyot and has now established itself as an annual event.
• The world's oldest rowing club, the Leander, was founded in 1818 in Putney.
• The Thames was ‘the largest navigable sewer in the world' and rowing was made even more hazardous by the ever-increasing number of steam boats charging up and down river creating huge washes.

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