Emanuel School Boat Club - Chiswick | UK Rowing Clubs | Row HQ

Emanuel School Boat Club rows on the Thames from Wates Boathouse on Riverside Drive at Dukes Meadows, Chiswick. The club belongs to Emanuel School in Battersea but keeps its rowing fleet and training facilities at this riverside base.

The boat club was founded in 1914, and Wates Boathouse dates from 1960. Historic England records boat storage on the ground floor and club rooms above, while the school has reported a fleet of 70 boats and a weights and rowing-machine room.

The current programme coaches pupils from beginner level through to aspiring junior international standard. It includes senior boys and girls squads, regattas, training camps and provision intended to let rowers compete for local, regional and national honours.

Emanuel dominated the Schools' Head during the 1960s, winning the championship eight eight times in nine years. Its 11 overall Schools' Head victories include a run from 1965 through 1970, and the club won Henley Royal Regatta's Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup in 1966.

The programme has also produced British junior champions across eights, fours, pairs and quads. In 2023 Sam Williams and Isaak Thurnham won the National Schools' Regatta championship pair, while the boys and girls both finished in the Schools' Head top five and the boys qualified for Henley Royal for the first time in ten years.

Seventy-six current rowers and recent leavers completed a 54-kilometre sponsored row from Windsor to Emanuel in autumn 2023, raising £14,000 for free school places. The club also qualified a crew through Henley Royal's official qualifying races in 2026.