The project, which will ultimately cost £10 million, is modelled on successful open air baths across Europe and New York, the latter successfully hitting its $250,000 (£166,000) crowdfunding target in just six days.

London's pool - which organisers hope to have up and running next year - will be designed to sit "naturally within the river environment, filling and flowing with the water that runs around, beneath and over it."

"I think it’s a European thing and London is late to the party," Romer-Lee added. "I was swimming in a public lake in Zurich on holiday and it was amazing, then I suddenly realised Berlin has got this pool, and Paris has got its variation of it. And Vienna, and New York. So it’s happening all over the world."

Still worried the murky river water might not be clean enough to splash around in?

Tim Evans, director of swimming pool firm Gartenart, which is working on the project, told The Daily Mail that the water will be "as clean as anything you would find in a mountain lake".

The downside? It's not heated.

Will you join the #BacktheBaths campaign, or stick to the local pool? Tell us your thoughts on the project in the comments section below.

Words: Anna Pollitt. Images: Thames Baths, Rex Features

Campaign to build open air swimming pool on the Thames gains momentum