We are located on the River Lea (a tributary of the River Thames) at the foot of Spring Hill in Upper Clapton (London Borough of Hackney). There has been rowing at the site since the early 19th Century. The Lea Rowing Club was founded in Autumn 1980 by the amalgamation of the last five clubs rowing from the boathouse, Stewart Ladies, Crowland, Gladstone Warwick, City Orient and Britannia. Since its founding the club has won 6 Henley Medals and countless National Championship Gold Medals.  The club has produced International Athletes in all categories – men, women, junior and lightweight.

We are an ARA affiliated club with close to 150 members, comprising around 90 senior members (about a third of whom are women) and 50 – 60 juniors (with roughly equal numbers of girls and boys).   We run two open regattas during the course of the season, and we compete as a club as far a field as Ghent, Ostend and Holme Pierrepont.   With the support of YES (Youth Experience in Sport), we run several development programs, including one for the local Jewish youth, summer rowing for local children as well as a taster event for schools known as ‘A Day on the River’.   These programs are ever expanding.   We have numerous qualified coaches ranging from IA to Silver Awards and encourage those interested to make the effort to get the appropriate qualifications.

What the Lea Rowing Club has to Offer

The Lea Rowing Club has many benefits that it offers to its new and existing members:

Experienced and Ambitious Rowers: Through its experience in competing at high standards, the club offers top level coaching and equipment for rowing and sculling for those who wish to succeed. A highly structured training schedule is available for our squad members; flexibility is introduced as each coach makes the effort to ensure that the schedule and training is tailored to individuals and the conditions at the time.

Learn2Row courses: The Lea is fortunate that it has fairly sheltered water which very rarely freezes over; allowing rowing on calm water all year round. Combined with our excellent selection of ‘tub’ beginner boats means we can provide the perfect introduction to rowing in a safe and productive manner. Many beginners enjoy the pleasant rowing conditions and also some exciting scenery including parts of Walthamstow Marshes. 

Juniors: As mentioned above we have excellent conditions for beginners and our junior section is fully equipped with specialist boats and equipment. We have several coaches which are dedicated only to the junior squads. The Lea Rowing Club can confidently say that it provides some of the safest conditions in London for juniors to learn how to row and also has the facilities to allow progression of beginners into National Champions.