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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Kate McCusker

Welcome to ‘Wet Wipe Island’: my day at London’s grimmest new landmark

Rowers travel past a digger on the shore of the Thames, with houses in the background
Colossal cleanup … Rowers travel past ‘Wet Wipe Island’ on the Thames. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

Imagine several mounds of congealed grot (consistency akin to the insides of a leisure centre shower drain, or the world’s most disgusting pedal bin) washed up on the southern foreshore of the River Thames in London at low tide. Then, imagine a tourist from New Zealand stopping to take a picture and several videos of said grot – presumably to show his kin back home what louts we are – while diggers deposit big black clods of the stuff into the bed of a truck, and rowers glide blithely by.

Imagine it, or see it for yourself. Welcome to “Wet Wipe Island”, London’s newest – and grimmest – landmark.

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