Take a stroll through London’s financial district on a normal day, and the dress code is predictable: tailored suits, polished shoes, and briefcases. This week, thanks to the relentless heat wave baking Europe, some workers have been arriving in Speedos.
While many people working in Canary Wharf — a purpose-built East London office district home to banks, investment funds, and law firms — have air-conditioned offices, they now have a new option to stay cool.
Floating in the shadow of Canary Wharf’s giant glass and steel skyscrapers is Eden Dock, where you can visit Sea Lanes, an open-water swimming pool filled with the dock’s natural spring-fed water.
On Thursday, when temperatures hit the mid 90s, a mix of chefs, doctors, office workers, and freelancers were queuing for one thing: somewhere cold enough to cool down.
‘By the end of the day, you don’t know who you are anymore’
Renee, 24, a chef from Canada who lives in north London, had never swum anywhere in the city before this week.
“I was just scrolling online, trying to find somewhere to escape the heat,” she said. She’d ruled out local pools after reading reviews about poor water quality and eventually found Eden Dock, though most time slots were already sold out.
The swim was a stark contrast to conditions at work, where temperatures in her kitchen had been over 100 degrees.
“By the end of the day, you’re delirious,” she said. “You don’t know who you are anymore.”
She said staff had been getting through shifts by draping cold, wet towels around their necks and huddling near portable fans. The shock of the dock water was exactly what she needed.
“It was really cold,” she said. “I love swimming in cold water.”
While she enjoyed her experience, Renee said she had found it more challenging to access natural swimming spots in London than at home in Canada, where outdoor lakes and swimming areas are often free and widely available.
Planning ahead but losing spontaneity
East London doctors Ananya, 27, and Neala, 26, had booked their slot four days in advance, before the latest surge in temperatures, and said it had been easy to get one then. Their experience, however, highlighted a broader problem with outdoor swimming in the city.
“You have to sign up a few days in advance, and they get booked so quickly,” Ananya said. “You can’t just spontaneously go.”
Working in an air-conditioned hospital has made the heat wave more bearable for them than for most, though they’ve seen a rise in patients admitted with high fevers. Their advice for coping at home was blunt: keep the heat out.
“Close your blinds. Close all the windows,” Neala said. “It feels counterintuitive because you want air, but there’s so much hot air outside.”
The doctors said hospitals have generally managed to cope with the heat wave, but added that workplace perks are not what they used to be. “They used to give us ice lollies [popsicles] when it was really hot,” Ananya lamented. “They’ve stopped now”
‘It would be silly not to’
Not everyone has had such a brutal week. Jake Galea, 37, who works in marketing at an investment firm a short walk from Eden Dock, commutes on an air-conditioned train to an air-conditioned office. He’s aware of how lucky that makes him.
“A lot of people are struggling on some of the older lines,” he said, referencing the fact that most London Underground trains aren’t air-conditioned.
Having the pool a five-minute walk from his desk has become an unexpected lunchtime luxury. “It would be silly not to,” he said. Several colleagues have now followed his lead, and the consensus, he said, is that the water is much colder than anyone expects.
He was also pleasantly surprised by the water quality. “You can see the bottom pretty well,” he said. “There’s a layer of algae, but compared to some places I’ve swum in London, it was pretty good.”
Refreshing the booking page until something opens
For Connell Jackson, 33, a freelance consultant from the east London district of Hackney, getting in required considerably more effort. He spent a chunk of his morning repeatedly refreshing the booking page, hoping for a cancellation, before finally landing one of the pricier swim-and-sauna packages.
“I was not looking for a sauna visit in this heat,” he said, laughing. “But I took the slot anyway just to swim.”
Working from home has become increasingly difficult during the heat wave. “My flat in Hackney is sweltering,” he said. “I’ve been keeping all the windows open, trying to get a draught through, but it doesn’t really work.” On days without meetings, he simply leaves.
He argues that London’s swimming facilities are too narrowly focused on sport, at the expense of everyone else.
“It’s hot in this city,” he said. “I just want somewhere to sit, read, jump in, and cool down. Swimming shouldn’t just be for sports people.”
A representative for the pool said it has seen heavy demand since opening during the heat wave. “We’ve been incredibly busy, with 7,000 visitors over seven days, and sessions have been selling fast.”
They added that users were a “broad mix of swimmers,” though office workers and nearby Londoners made up the majority.
On the dock, the mood was good. The water was cold. Laptops were open at deck tables. The ducklings were out. And for a few hours, the city’s workers found exactly what they were looking for, relief from the sweltering heat.
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