Roehampton Club celebrates 125 years of sport in south west London

Roehampton Club began life in 1901 as a polo club with croquet lawns. In 2026 the private members' club is celebrating 125 years of what it calls "sport, competition, fun and friendship" with a year-long 125 Festival of Events.

Today the club has an 18-hole parkland golf course, 28 tennis courts including ten grass courts, two padel courts, six squash courts, four croquet lawns, a gym and indoor and outdoor swimming pools. Croquet has been played there since 1902, and its lawns are reputed to be among the best in the country.

Each section of the club has hosted its own events for the anniversary. The festival programme opened with a Mixed Golf Pro Am on 10 April and the 100th Ladies' Gold Cup on 11 April. The calendar also listed a Roehampton Club 125 Open in tennis, a 125 Celebratory Dinner for squash players, swim galas for juniors and adults, a choir concert, and a Summer Party and Family Day at the end of June.

Croquet had a particularly busy year, with the programme listing the MacRobertson Shield opening ceremony, matches and a centenary dinner in late July. Bridge players have kept the celebrations going into the autumn, with Swiss Teams in October and Kitchen Bridge on 1 November.

A special Roehampton Club Rose has been grown to mark the milestone, a nod to the rose gardens planted in the club's founding years. It inspired the anniversary's pink colour scheme, and members have been playing local clubs for 125 Rose Bowl trophies.

The club's archivist, Steve Riedlinger, has been looking back at its heyday a century ago. The 1926 programme included polo cup finals, tennis exhibitions featuring Suzanne Lenglen and the French "Four Musketeers", and a Flying Day organised by the Royal Aero Club, with passenger flights and music from the Royal Air Force Band.

The club enters its next chapter in good shape. A £3 million refurbishment of the Members' Bar, restaurant, function rooms and garden terrace was completed in August 2025. Its teams have been winning too, as European Men's Squash Club Champions in 2024 and 2025, National League Women's Tennis Champions in 2025 and National Interclub Croquet Champions from 2022 to 2025.

Roehampton Club is about twenty minutes by train from Waterloo, and its function spaces and gardens are also available for weddings and events.