Lakeside Regional Shopping Centre, Thurrock, is situated by junctions 30 and 31 of the M25 and opened in 1990 together with a PADI Dive Centre which is next to Alexandra Lake. This 22 acre lake has pike and various diver training platforms, floating triangles, two lorry cabs, a London black taxi, a transit van, a wreck and even a BT red telephone box.

My first dive (my dive 215) at Alexandra Lake was on 28th May 2000 with my long suffering dive buddy, Graeme “Spotty” Hastings. The visibility was surprisingly poor, about 1 to 3 metres but we did see a large pike. During this dive we surfaced in the middle of a heavy downpour, which seemed surreal.

Returning to Alexandra Lake three days later, the visibility underwater was unchanged. Spotty and I again saw a large pike as well as smaller pikes and crayfish. At the north end of the lake the bed drops to a depth of around 15 metres and as we descended to this deeper depth, the water temperature fell dramatically and the visibility deteriorated. Apparently there is a spring inlet at the bottom of this part of the lake where the water temperature is just 6° Celsius.

Spotty and I next dived Alexandra Lake on 21st November 2001 (my dive 440) and the visibility underwater was just 0.1 to 0.5 metres. Somehow we managed to see several small roach and numerous crayfish. Two months later (my dive 453) Spotty and I returned to try out our new dry suits, the advancing years having forced us to mothball our semi-dry wetsuits during the winter. We had intended to do two dives but the Lakeside Diving Centre opened very late and having waited impatiently for a long time we had to make do with one quick 39 minute dive. Still at least the visibility, at 4 to 5 metres, was much better than on our previous three dives.