Our roots are in rowing. Today we’re a big team, but back in 2004 we were just an idea in the imagination of our chairman Jim Downing, an American…
The father of a keen oarsman, Jim was watching the rowing at Henley Royal Regatta, and noticed that most of the crews were fair skinned and blue eyed – not at all representative of the city he had adopted as his home, London – which even has a great rowing river running right through it. He was inspired to open up access to rowing to all young people in London – whatever their background.
And so LYR was launched in June 2004 at the London Regatta Centre – a world class rowing facility, as a partnership between the Royal Albert Dock Trust which owns and operates the centre, and The Federation of London Youth Clubs (London Youth). The centre is adjacent to the boroughs of Newham, Hackney and Tower Hamlets.
Since then the project has expanded to several other clubs across London including The Lea Rowing Club in Hackney, to the Globe Rowing Club in Greenwich and to Barn Elms Boathouse in Wandsworth to provide an integrated programme that is easily accessible to young people, wherever they are.
Our charity status
Today, we are a fully fledged charity in our own right and draw participants from all over London, but particularly from East London, an area of high social need and home to approximately 175,000 secondary school children and 22,000 ‘London Youth’ club members.