The Ranelagh Club was a

polo Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...

club located at

Barn Elms Barn Elms is an open space in Barnes in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, located on the northerly loop of the River Thames between Barnes and Fulham. The WWT London Wetland Centre (105 acres of what were once reservoirs) lie ...

in south west

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It was founded in 1878 as a split-off from the

Hurlingham Club 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 of grounds. It is a member of the Association of London Clubs. His ...

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. They are often used to illuminate outdoor playing fields while an outdoor sports event is being held during low-light conditions. More focused kinds are often used as a stage ...

s when it played the Hurlingham Club. At its height the Ranelagh Club consisted of a large clubhouse (the inherited manor house of

), four polo grounds, ten

croquet Croquet ( or ; french: croquet) is a sport that involves hitting wooden or plastic balls with a mallet through hoops (often called "wickets" in the United States) embedded in a grass playing court. Its international governing body is the Wor ...

lawns, two

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

courts and an 18-hole

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

course. From the mid-1890s the club hosted an annual ladies' open golf meeting. From 1901 to 1936 the meeting included the

International Cup The Australian Football International Cup (also known as the AFL International Cup or simply the IC) is a triennial international Australian rules football sport competition. It is the biggest worldwide tournament in the sport and is open to ...

, contested by the

Home Nations Home Nations is a collective term with one of two meanings depending on context. Politically it means the nations of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales). In sport, if a sport is g ...

. 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 atta ...

. 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, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and the polo grounds were used for allotments under the

Dig for Victory Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany during World War I ...

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 running surface for track and field athletics. It provides a consistent surface for competitors to test their athletic ability unencumbered by adverse weather conditions. Historically, v ...

resides on top of the drained land, reclaimed from the old lake. The entire site now constitutes the

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 estates, 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 so ...

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