Westminster School Boat Club - Putney | UK Rowing Clubs | Row HQ

Westminster School Boat Club is based on the Tideway at Putney, where the school calls rowing "Water". Written rowing records begin in 1813, with reports of Westminster pupils rowing around Lambeth dating to the 1790s.

Competitive rowing in central London ended after the Embankment was built in the 1870s. The school returned to the river in the early twentieth century with a new Putney boathouse, and Westminster later founded the Schools' Head of the River Race in 1946.

Around 90 to 100 pupils from across the school row throughout the year on Tuesdays, Thursdays and competition weekends. Small boats predominate in winter and larger boats in summer, while girls can learn both sculling and sweep rowing.

The principal programme includes the Schools' Head, National Schools' Regatta and Henley Royal Regatta. Westminster won the Fawley Challenge Cup and the open Princess Grace Challenge Cup in 2009, reached the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup final in 2015 and recorded multiple National Schools' medals between 2012 and 2022.

Westminster pupils have repeatedly represented Great Britain at junior level. The school's record includes silver medals in the 2022 World Junior men's eight, a member of the winning 2024 GB junior eight and a girls' coastal quadruple sculls victory in Monaco in 2024.