St Paul's School Boat Club - Barnes | UK Rowing Clubs | Row HQ

St Paul's School Boat Club rows from the school campus at Barnes in south-west London. Its boathouse opens directly onto the Thames near the halfway point of the Championship Course used by the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.

The school's earliest recorded athletic event was a four-oared race against Merchant Taylors' School in 1830. An 1884 school publication urged every Pauline who could swim to take advantage of the river and join the rowing club; the school and boat club moved to the present Barnes site in 1968.

The club trains and races throughout the year, with local races roughly every two weeks before major events including the National Schools' Regatta and Henley Royal Regatta. Its boathouse holds about 80 boats and includes a workshop and gym.

St Paul's has won the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup eight times, in 1950, 1953, 1957, 1997, 2015, 2018, 2022 and 2024. Its honours also include repeated Championship Eight victories at the Schools' Head and Queen Mother Challenge Cup wins at the National Schools' Regatta.

The 2024 and 2025 seasons brought consecutive first-eight wins at both the Head of the Charles and Schools' Head, three course records, eleven Schools' Head golds and ten National Schools golds. The 2024 season also included the latest Princess Elizabeth victory.

Former pupils can continue through Colet Boat Club, which enters the Head of the River Race and Henley Royal Regatta. Old Paulines Freddie Davidson and David Ambler won World Championship coxless-four titles in 2022 and 2023 before taking Olympic bronze in Paris in 2024.