River Thames to the strong current of the river, but also other river users. Organised swimming events take place at various points generally upstream of Hampton Court, including Windsor, Marlow and Henley. In 2011 comedian David Walliams swam the from Lechlade to Westminster Bridge and raised over £1 million for charity. In non-tidal stretches swimming was, and still is, a leisure and fitness activity among experienced swimmers where safe, deeper outer channels are used in times of low stream. A Thames meander is a long-distance journey over all or part of the Thames by running, swimming or using any of the above
River Thames and Rowing Museum in Henley). Richard Coates suggests that while the river was as a whole called the Thames, part of it, where it was too wide to ford, was called *"(p)lowonida". This gave the name to a settlement on its banks, which became known as Londinium, from the Indo-European roots *"pleu-" "flow" and *"-nedi" "river" meaning something like the flowing river or the wide flowing unfordable river. For merchant seamen, the Thames has long been just the "London River". Londoners often refer to it simply as "the river" in expressions such as "south of the river". The river gives