Design practice, Y/N Studio, has come up with a leftfield scheme which could allow people to get fit on the daily commute and put the London water network to good use.

Designers Alex Smith and David Lomax – who dreamt up the scheme after watching the open water swimming at the Olympics – are suggesting inserting a clean, safe basin into Regents Canal, to create a swimming lane from Little Venice to the Limehouse Basin. The basin is being pioneered by +Pool, a project for a public swimming pool in the Hudson, NYC. Biodiversity and cleanliness would be further improved by incorporating oxgenating reeds in key locations.

"The really exciting bit would be the Islington tunnel," says Smith, of the 900m stretch beneath Angel. "It could be filled with disco lights."

In the winter it could be transformed into an ice rink, so people could swap their swimmers for skates. Key stations along the way would provide changing areas and lockers.