The Hurlingham Club
Template:Short description Template:For Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template other The Hurlingham Club is an exclusive private social and athletic club located in the Fulham area of London, England. Founded in 1869, it has a Georgian-style clubhouse set in Template:Convert of grounds. It is a member of the Association of London Clubs.
History
Early history
The Gun Club was formed in 1860 at the Hornsey Wood Tavern, which stood in what today is Finsbury Park in Harringay, London.<ref>Hannah Velten, Beastly London: A History of Animals in the City, Reaktion Books, 2013.</ref> The creation of the park in 1867 forced a relocation and Frank Heathcote received the permission of Richard Naylor to promote live pigeon shooting at his Hurlingham estate.<ref>Albert William Money, Pigeon shooting: With instructions for beginners and suggestions for those who participate in the sport of pigeon shooting, Shooting and fishing publishing company, 1896, p. 99.</ref> His next step was the formation of the Hurlingham Club for this purpose and "as an agreeable country resort".<ref>John Lowerson, Sport and the English Middle Classes, 1870–1914, Manchester University Press, 1995, p. 40.</ref> The club leased the estate from Naylor in 1869 and in 1874 acquired the land outright for £27,500.<ref name="laffaye">Template:Cite book</ref> The pigeon today forms part of the club's crest. Until 1905, clouds of pigeons were released in the summer from an enclosure near what is now a tennis pavilion.
The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), an early patron, was a keen shot and his presence ensured the club's status and notability from the beginning. The club's most recent patron was Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Polo
In 1873, the club published the rules of polo, which are still followed by most of the world to this day.<ref name="laffaye"/><ref>Edward Darley Miller, Modern Polo, Hurst and Blackett, 1902, p. 333.</ref><ref>Thomas Francis Dale, Polo past and present, Offices of Country Life, 1905, p. 24.</ref><ref>T. B. Drybrough, Polo, Longmans, Green, 1906, p. 1.</ref> Polo was first played at the club on 6 June 1874.<ref name="laffaye"/><ref>Mike Huggins, The Victorians And Sport, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004, p. 25.</ref> On 18 July 1878, the club along with Ranelagh became the first to play a sports match under floodlights.<ref name="played">Template:Cite book</ref> In 1886, the club hosted the first international polo match between England and the United States.<ref>George B. Kirsch, Othello Harris, Claire Elaine Nolte,Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000, p. 147.</ref> The polo matches for the 1908 Summer Olympics were played at Hurlingham. Three teams entered: Hurlingham, Roehampton Club, and a combined British and Irish team. Roehampton won.<ref>1908 Summer Olympics official report. p. 232.</ref>
The Westchester Cup was played at the club in 1900, 1902, 1909, 1921 and 1936.<ref name="laffaye"/> Before the Second World War, Hurlingham was the headquarters of British polo. The governing body of British polo is called the Hurlingham Polo Association.<ref name="laffaye"/> However polo is no longer staged at Hurlingham after the size of the club was significantly reduced after the war when the polo fields were compulsorily purchased by the Metropolitan Borough of Fulham to build council housing (the Sulivan Court estate).<ref name="laffaye"/> The Guards Polo Club in Windsor Great Park has succeeded to the status of the leading British polo club.
Golf
There is a nine-hole par 3 golf course that is open in winter months.
Croquet
Hurlingham has been at the centre of world croquet for many years. The Croquet Association had its headquarters in the club from 1959 to 2002.<ref>Debrett's, Debrett's guide to Britain: where to go and what to see, Putnam, 1983, p. 131.</ref> Top-ranking international competitions are regularly held on the lawns, at one time the finest in the country, though the CA headquarters have since relocated to the Cheltenham Croquet Club.
Other sports and events
Other sports include lawn tennis, cricket, bowls, skittles, squash and swimming (with both indoor and outdoor pools) as well as fitness facilities and a gymnasium. Games such as bridge, backgammon and chess are popular indoor pursuits. The club has also hosted the Grand Prix Ball<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the Concours d'Elegance.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Membership
Members must be proposed and seconded by two current full members of the club. Since 2018, the waiting list for becoming a member has been closed, but children and spouses of current members are given preference when vacancies do arise.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The club currently has around 13,000 members – of whom around 6,000 have full voting rights.Template:Citation needed
Notable members
Lord Fowler, Lord Temple-Morris, Adam Raphael, novelist and peer Jeffrey Archer, the actor Trevor Eve and his wife Sharon Maughan are all members of the Hurlingham Club. Past members include Walter Buckmaster, the Carry On actress Liz Fraser and Air Vice-Marshal Sir William Cushion.Template:Citation needed
In 2011, Charles Nall-Cain, 3rd Baron Brocket was refused membership owing to his stint in prison.Template:Citation needed
Gallery
See also
Bibliography
- The Hurlingham Club, 1869–1953, by Henry Taprell Dorling (1953)
- Pigeons, Polo, and Other Pastimes: A History of the Hurlingham Club, by Nigel Miskin (2000)
- Template:Cite book
References
External links
Template:1908 Summer Olympics venues Template:Olympic venues discontinued events Template:Gentlemen's clubs in London Template:Coord
- Pages with broken file links
- 1869 establishments in England
- History of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
- Venues of the 1908 Summer Olympics
- Gentlemen's clubs in London
- Fulham
- Olympic polo venues
- Polo clubs in the United Kingdom
- Sport in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
- Sports clubs and teams established in 1869
- Tennis venues in London