Barnes Bridge Ladies Rowing Club - London | UK Rowing Clubs | Row HQ

Barnes Bridge Ladies Rowing Club is a women-only club based at the Civil Service Boathouse in Dukes Meadows, Chiswick. It rows on the tidal Thames and shares the boathouse with Cygnet Rowing Club.

The club traces its origins to the Civil Service Women's Headquarters Rowing Club, created in the early 1920s for women whose government departments had no club of their own. Its history treats the first Civil Service regatta at Eel Pie Island in September 1922 as the beginning of the club story. The name settled as Civil Service Ladies Rowing Club in the early 1970s and changed to Barnes Bridge Ladies in 1997.

Civil Service women won the Women's Head of the River Race in 1939 and again in 1951. Pauline Grudgings represented the club in the Great Britain eight at the first official Women's European Championships in 1954, and a club four won for England at the 1971 Home International Regatta.

Clare Grove, Lin Clark and Pauline Wright were selected for Great Britain when women's rowing entered the Olympic programme in 1976. Four club members then rowed in the British women's eight at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Today the club has competitive and development squads. Its Get Fit and Row course combines coached rowing-machine, strength and conditioning, and on-water sessions for women aged 18 and over; successful graduates may progress to the development squad. Competitive crews target the Women's Head, Fours Head, Henley Women's Regatta, masters championships and Tideway events.

BBLRC organises the annual Pairs Head on the Thames. British Rowing reported 355 crews for the race's 50th edition in 2021, hosted by Barnes Bridge Ladies.