Rebuilding Set to Begin at Quintin Boat Club

18-month redevelopment project will deliver bigger modern boathouse

A computer visualisation of the new boathouse. Picture: QBC

June 23, 2024

Ground is about to be broken on a major redevelopment project by the river in Chiswick that will see a local boathouse rebuilt over the next 18 months.

Quintin Boat Club (QBC) has been based at the site off Ibis Lane since 1907 but there has been rowing from there since 1888 when Quintin Hogg paid for a boathouse to be constructed. This mainly wooden structure was pulled down in 1924 when the present one was built.

100 years on the Quintin Hogg Trust has committed to invest £3,000,000 on this rebuilding project which should deliver a three-storey modern boathouse with seven boat bays plus, for the first time a crew room. The front part of the building facing the river, including the clubroom balcony and the boat bay is to be retained.

There will be a bigger events space including a bar and large terrace that will be available for social and community activities.

The fully accessible building will also feature four modern changing rooms that can be interconnected and configured for juniors, men and women, new cardio gym and weights room on the second floor and a fully equipped kitchen.

The new facility will allow the expansion of activities at the boathouse particularly for children. The existing boathouse already hosts children from Kew House and Chiswick School as well a junior sculling club called Grove Park Sculling but, for the first time, there will be dedicated changing rooms for children, significantly increasing the times they can row at the site.

In return for fitting out the new boathouse, QBC has agreed terms for a 25-year lease to future proof the site for both the club and rowing. The lease is automatically renewable and QBC intends to be at the site for at least the next 100 years.

Although the bar is not open to the public, QBC hopes to hold events to which to local residents would be invited and access would be given for community meetings and events.

The project has been co-ordinated with the recent upgrade of the facilities at the University of Westminster next door. The trusts which manage the two sites have the same board of trustees, so the schemes are designed to work in tandem.

The commencement of work on the new boathouse is a bit of good news for the local rowing community following the apparent stalling of the project to rebuild the boathouse at Dukes Meadows. Some of the clubs based at the former facility have relocated to the existing QBC facility but there is regret at the lost capacity for rowing in the area at a time when its popularity as a sport is growing so quickly.

A spokesperson for QBC says, “We believe this scheme will both preserve the best traditions and atmosphere of the old clubhouse and give us facilities fit for the 21st century.”