Lea Rowing Club - Hackney | UK Rowing Clubs | Row HQ

Lea Rowing Club is based at Spring Hill in Hackney and rows on the River Lea from Tottenham towards the Olympic Park. It is affiliated to British Rowing, accepts members from age 12 and operates as a registered charity.

The club was founded in 1980 when members of Crowland, City Orient, Gladstone Warwick, Britannia and Stuart Ladies combined to form one open club. Its history says the Spring Hill site appears on maps from the 1850s, after pleasure-boating businesses and boatyards had developed along the river earlier in the nineteenth century.

Current squads cover men, women, masters, novices and juniors, alongside recreational, community and school rowing. The adult learn-to-row course runs for about four weeks in summer, with qualified coaches and experienced club members, and can lead into recreational or competitive squads.

A 2016 extension doubled the boathouse's space. The club lists racing and recreational boats in a range of sizes, three air-conditioned training areas, 25 rowing machines, RP3 machines, exercise bikes and weights among its facilities.

Lea says its crews have won Henley Royal Regatta six times and that club members have earned national and international medals. Its history also records junior, under-23 and senior representation for Great Britain and England; coach Gill Parker rowed for Britain at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and has been at Lea since the club opened.

The club runs Spring and Autumn regattas over 600 metres. The Spring event is scheduled for the last Sunday in April and the Autumn event for the first Sunday in September. Recreational members can row in stable fours, quads, pairs and doubles over a four-mile stretch of the Lea.

A 2026 recruitment notice describes Lea as having more than 400 members, including more than 100 juniors. The same official notice says British Rowing named it Club of the Year in 2022, while its men's squad page records a Wyfold Challenge Cup final appearance in 2021.