Founded 1866 Website curlewrowingclub.co.uk | Affiliations British Rowing | |
 | ||
Location Greenwich, United Kingdom Home water Tideway, London Docklands | ||
Curlew Rowing Club is rowing club based on the Tideway of the River Thames at Greenwich, London, England. It was founded in 1866 and has been in Greenwich without interruption for over 130 years, though not always called Curlew.
Contents
History
The first regatta at which a “Curley” crew is believed to have rowed was held at Greenwich in 1787. In the first half of the 19th century “Curley” was one of several crews, along with a crew called “The Argonauts”, who had their own boats in the Greenwich and Deptford reaches. The Argonauts grew substantially in numbers until some of its members transferred their activities to Putney, to form the London Rowing Club with the object of rowing at Henley.
The “Curley” crew remained in Greenwich and in 1866 a club was formed in order to rent the (now demolished) Crown Sceptre Pub in Greenwich. “Curley”, by this stage had become “Curlew” and had incorporated the residue of the “Argonauts” and another crew “Lurline” who had been unable to carry on independently. Curlew then occupied the "Crown and Sceptre" until the building was demolished in 1934. So after 68 years Curlew moved to the "Trafalgar Tavern" where Curlew had a Club room / bar and a small basement gym. These premises where leased at that time from the Greenwich Hospital Estates.
Modern day
Curlew Rowing Club is now based in out of the Trafalgar Rowing Centre only a few doors down from their old home. Curlew moved to the Trafalgar Rowing Centre in late 2003, and with the Trafalgar Trust (Curlew Rowing Club and Globe Rowing Club) now own a new boathouse and gym in Greenwich. Furthermore, on the water training takes place at the London Regatta Centre based at the Victoria and Albert Docks, where Curlew has access to a complete multi-laned buoyed 2 km racing lake. Recently some boats have been relocated to Greenwich to train on the River Thames again.
Curlew has had much success on the water qualifying and competing at Henley Royal Regatta every year since 2000. 2011 saw the club qualify two VIIIs to The Thames Challenge Cup, the first time in the club's history and the first time a club east of Putney has done so. In 2016 Curlew Rowing Club won the Ampthill Cup for elite pairs at The Metropolitan Regatta, this is the first time and only time Curlew Rowing Club have won this event.
Further to the success of the Men's squad, the Women reached the quarter final of Women's Henley, and the Women's Senior Double achieving Bronze at the National Championship of Great Britain.
Henley Royal Regatta
Curlew Rowing Club have qualified for Henley Royal Regatta 12 out of 13 seasons since 2000, making Thursday only once in that time. In 2011 and 2012 Curlew have managed to qualify both 1st and 2nd VIII into the Thames Challenge Cup, a feat only matched by Thames Rowing Club in West London.