Deal Reached in Dispute Between Rowing Club and Council

Thames Tradesmen's given security of tenure and control of Chiswick Boat House

Members of the club remove their boats from the boathouse

Hounslow Council have agree to hand back Chiswick Boat House to the Thames Tradesmen’s Rowing Club (TTRC) just days before their case was due to be hear in the Court of Appeal.

The council have conceded that TTRC own a lease on the premises giving them security of tenure and control of the boat house. The club has agreed that the lease can be terminated if the site is redeveloped but now they have extra protection including financial conditions.

The club has to reassign the lease to a newly established company as it is currently held in the name of three individuals. This new entity will be controlled by the club’s membership.

The Council had been attempting to force the club to accept a short-term licence for the facilities they have used for the last 35 years despite their being 15 years left on their lease. In 2018, with no prior warning the club was given four weeks’ notice of eviction and the club had to vacate the boat house, only being allow to return to retrieve the boats stored in the facility.

The Council wants to demolish the clubhouse and use the land to construct another facility including a boat house which would have a café at the ground floor level. They had claimed that the buildings were in a poor state and underused and the TTRC had agreed to the licence arrangement. They further claimed that the club was occupying the boat house under an illegal sub-letting arrangement. Steve Curran, the leader of Hounslow Council, said that the council was just seeking to regularise the use of what would be much improved facilities and denied claims that the site would be sold to a private members’ club.

Established in 1897, TTRC has a proud heritage of international representation stretching back to the 1960s. Olympic medallists Sir Steve Redgrave CBE, James Cracknell OBE, and Martin Cross are just a few of the rowing stars who raced for TTRC. 14,000 people signed a petition in support of the club and James Cracknell urged the council to see the ‘unfairness’ of the situation after he was initially unable to access his own boat when the club was locked up.

Chiswick Boathouse

April 26, 2020