Swimmers protested outside the High Court on Wednesday

GRAB a coffee – there are only five or so branches of Pret to choose from – find a bench or perhaps bring a fold-up chair and settle in on the Strand.

For if people-watching and the wonder and diversity of life is your thing, there can hardly now be a better spot to see it all unfold in London.

Never mind Speakers’ Corner or Trafalgar Square, get there at the right time and you will see placards and hear the horns outside the Royal Courts of Justice.

Bringing a judicial review in the High Court, you see, is no longer enough, particularly in this age of social media optics.

Whereas niche courtroom dramas may be playing inside the grand old building – a lawyer will be referring a judge to look at page 782 of the claimant’s bundle, and so forth zzzz – the theatre is really unfolding at the precinct gates.

Here you will see campaigners punching up on all manner of issues from unfair benefit systems, environmental disasters, health privatisation – take a look at the opposite page for that – and this week the right to swim in a pond for free.

Raising the bar in terms of eye-catching demonstrations, swimmers upset by a charging system for open-air swimming on the waters of Hampstead Heath turned up in their bathers. It wasn’t the warmest of February days on Wednesday but, no doubt, these brave souls are used to cold temperatures given their preferred place for a dip.

Myself? I simply had another sip on the old mocha and marvelled at another spectacle on the Strand.