I'm tired of all this sunshine. I want to bathe in some lovely rain again

Telegraph

06-04-2025

I am a winter swimmer. Most people think I am mad, going off under leaden wintry skies to lower myself into 3C water with nothing but a bit of nylon for protection.
But not only is the freezing dip a welcome shock, but the greyer and rainier the weather is, the better. For there is no urban landscape on earth that looks better, more alive or more atmospheric under cloud, rain, storm or fog than London.
The flipside of this is that sun is not always enjoyable in our ancient city. In fact, it can be abrasive, and indeed long periods of London sun make me feel trapped, worn down, intruded upon.
Controversially, I am very ready for the present endless-feeling sunny spell to end.
For nothing, surely, is worse than a low winter or early spring sun boring into one's eyes – aggressive, glaring, but chilly. I always think of Martin Amis's novel London Fields in which he talks about the 'carcinogenic' sun waiting at the end of the road.
It makes the stone and brick look dirty and tired, whereas drizzle brings out the sinuous romance of London's – and Britain's – architectural environment.
I always scan the weather forecast not for sunny days to look forward to but for days of rain. The latter is especially welcome in the spring and summer, when the sun rises early and the day feels like it is scorching itself on your retina long before you're ready to face it. By contrast, there is nothing more pleasant than waking to the soft patter of rain or going to sleep with it, the water illuminated in the street lights.
I like a sunbathe on holiday as much as the next person, but in London, I'd take a rain-bathe, or indeed an icy-bathe, any day instead.