Hopes Stir for Revival of Chiswick Boathouse Plan

Council suggests another local rowing club could use facilities

The cleared boathouse site viewed from the Dukes Meadows Footbridge

March 14, 2025

Members of the local rowing community are hopeful that progress could soon be made on the rebuilding of Chiswick Boathouse.

A plan to rebuild the facility near Dukes Meadows was scrapped last year by Hounslow Council which said there was insufficient funding despite over £4,000,000 being set aside for the project.

The existing boathouse on Dan Mason Drive was vacated by the Thames Tradesmen’s Rowing Club (TTRC) at the end of 2021 and demolished in 2022 and the cleared site remains unused.

The original plans envisaged a café on the ground floor and four boat bays to allow a range of water sports activities in addition to the return of the TTRC. It is understood that escalating construction costs was one of the reasons the decision was made not to proceed.

The council said that it needed to go back to the drawing board and commissioned a feasibility study for the site costing £50,000 which was completed last year. It was suggested that the original projections for revenue for the facility were overoptimistic with the lease for the café budgeted at £100,000 per annum

ChiswickW4.com requested to see this report and, when this was refused, a Freedom of Information request was made to Hounslow Council. This was denied on two grounds, firstly that the report was to be put into the public domain and that parts of it were commercially sensitive at this time.

A visualisation of the abandoned plan for the Boathouse cafe. Picture: Hounslow Council

Hounslow Council recently published a list of projects allocated funding from the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and the £2,482,000 put aside for the boathouse project remains available. The council has been adamant that the option of leaving the site empty has been ruled out and also that it will never be handed over to a private members’ club.

Hopes that the project is about to be revived were stirred at a recent meeting in Brentford at which local rowing club Team Keane was looking for support for its activities from the council with a new boathouse at its current base. It was advised that it should consider relocating to the new boathouse to be built in Chiswick.

There was an angry response to the suggestion that they might think of moving to Dukes Meadows. Brentford councillor Guy Lambert said in his weekly blog for BrentfordTW8.com, "The investment the council has earmarked to provide another boat house in Dukes Meadow at a cost of £2.5M should be diverted to Brentford. Here the need and the potential particularly for less advantaged people are located. I strongly agree and have been making the case with the leaders of the council, thus far not successfully. There is an old commitment to build in Chiswick: fair enough - there was an old commitment to keep a police station in Brentford. Priorities change, and it is urgent that we capitalise on Brentford's long history as a port and a boat place for the town's character and to provide opportunities, especially to its teenagers and young adults. I will not be giving up on this ambition."

Cllr Tom Bruce, the Deputy Leader of the Council said on the Brentford TV Facebook page, "One point raised during our discussions was whether the Keanes might run their project from the potential new Chiswick Boathouse. This is something they were going to take away, and while I accept it doesn’t directly address the lack of a boathouse or rowing opportunities in Brentford, or may not even be possible, I think it is worth exploring further."

He continued, “It seems like two separate issues have been conflated. To clarify, proposals for redeveloping the Chiswick Boathouse site have been in place since at least 2017. Although there have been and are many challenges, I remain committed—just as Steve Curran did before me—to delivering better facilities at Dukes Meadows. I am therefore pleased that we’ve been able to allocate funding from CIL.”

An earlier design for the new boathouse near Dukes Meadows. Picture: Hounslow Council

The original vision for the new boathouse was that it should be the base for the introduction of rowing across the borough’s schools with the involvement of London Youth Rowing and British Rowing with every child being given the opportunity to try the sport.

Nigel Brophy, the Chairman of TTRC, says that the club very much supports the idea of using the site to broaden participation but it has not been informed about any progress being made on the rebuild. He adds, “We believe there should be boat facilities (rowing kayaking, paddle boarding) made available on the site as this is a very historic site (from a rowing perspective), has a safe and easy access to the river and provides a growing interest (water sports) amongst the local community. We teach people how to row and offer membership to our club where they can row throughout the year – Monday to Sunday.”

A council spokesperson said that while there was no announcement on the Chiswick Boathouse expected imminently, it was hoped there would be some progress on the project soon.