13 Jun 07

The University Boat Club (OUBC) has officially opened its new boathouse on the former Wallingford Marina site.

At an opening ceremony on 10 June, University staff joined many of the OUBC alumni members who donated to the project to watch a major benefactor, Robin Fleming, cut the ribbon to the new building. The building, to be known as 'OUBC Fleming Boat House', is named after his father Philip Fleming - an Oxford undergraduate from Magdalen College, who rowed in the Varsity boat race in 1910 and won an Olympic gold medal in 1912 as a member of the British Eight.

The boathouse, on a three-acre site, boasts a 'dry boathouse' to house the squad's fleet of race boats, a wet store for coaching launches, changing rooms, and two magnificent club rooms - one for dining, and another for alumni and the display of memorabilia. In just three years the Club managed to raise most of the £4m needed to buy the land and carry out the building work, but it still has to find another £300,000 to clear a University loan.

The new home off St Lucian's Lane replaces the old University Boathouse, which was burned down in 1999. The former boathouse, built in the 1880s, was totally destroyed along with much of the club's rowing memorabilia that had been collected and stored there for over a hundred years. OUBC hopes the new facility will be a place where the four University squads can train, and also provide a meeting place for their alumni members.

OUBC Director of Rowing, Steve Royle, said: 'This is the first freehold property solely owned by OUBC in the club's history since its foundation in 1839. It will become OUBC members' spiritual home - a place to house the history of the club, as well as providing superb facilities for the University squads to prepare their crews to race Cambridge in their respective Varsity matches.'

Guests at the opening were invited to tour the new boathouse and watch a procession of boats row past, including one crew of members who represented Great Britain in the 1960 Olympic Games. The Oxford launch,'Bosporos', was included in the flotilla, as well as various other assembled crews.