The Ranelagh Club was a

polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...

club located at Barn Elms in south west

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It was founded in 1878 as a split-off from the Hurlingham Club and by 1894 was the largest polo club in the world. The club had approximately 3000 members in 1913, including many prominent military figures and members of different royal families. On 18 July 1878, the club became the first to host a sports match under

floodlight A floodlight is a broad-beamed, high-intensity artificial light. It can provide functional area lighting for travel-ways, parking, entrances, work areas, and sporting venues to enable visibility adequate for safe task performance, ornament ...

s when it played the Hurlingham Club. At its height the Ranelagh Club consisted of a large clubhouse (the inherited manor house of Barn Elms), four polo grounds, ten

croquet Croquet ( or ) is a sport which involves hitting wooden, plastic, or composite balls with a mallet through hoops (often called Wicket, "wickets" in the United States) embedded in a grass playing court. Variations In all forms of croquet, in ...

lawns, two

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

courts and an 18-hole

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

course. From the mid-1890s the club hosted an annual ladies' open golf meeting. From 1901 to 1936 the meeting included the International Cup, contested by the Home Nations. There were also two lakes for

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically a ...

. As the 20th century continued, the club's patronage diminished and funds dwindled. It closed shortly before

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and the polo grounds were used for allotments under the Dig for Victory scheme. The clubhouse burnt down in 1954. The lake was then drained, and the site converted into playing fields. Trees now cover the area which was previously occupied by the clubhouse and its gardens, and an

athletics track An all-weather running track is a rubberized, artificial Race track#Surfaces, running surface for track and field athletics. It provides a consistent surface for competitors to test their athletic ability unencumbered by adverse weather conditi ...

resides on top of the drained land, reclaimed from the old lake. The entire site now constitutes the Barn Elms open space, consisting of two separately-operated sports facilities. There is very little left to be seen of the Ranelagh Club except an ice house and a 300m long driveway entrance off the Lower Richmond Road, which now leads to the

council housing Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council housing or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011, when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in social housing. D ...

of the Ranelagh estate.

References

Sources

* Henry, Pat (self-published, 1999).''The Putney Velodrome and the Putney Velodrome Estate'', * ''Ranelagh Club: Rules and bye-laws, committees and list of members'', London (1913) {{Coord, 51.474, -0.232, display=title 1878 establishments in England 1939 disestablishments in England Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Polo clubs in the United Kingdom Sport in Barnes, London