Our editor meets Peter Craig, Grounds Manager at the Hurlingham Club, an exclusive members club in south west London on the banks of the River Thames
LONDON’S T
he Hurlingham Club is an exclusive private members club in Fulham, South West London. It is situated on the banks of the River Thames between Putney and Wandsworth bridges and is only a ten-minute car journey from the heart of the West End. And yet, once inside the forty-two acres of beautiful grounds and gardens, it is hard to imagine that you are anywhere near the heart of one of the biggest and busiest cities in the world
The club has a membership of over 14,000 and a waiting list longer than the Thames. It boasts some of the finest indoor facilities with a 30 metre indoor heated pool, jacuzzi, dance studio, treatment rooms, squash courts and a brand new state-of-the-art gymnasium. There is also a 30 metre heated outdoor pool, open during the summer months. Indoor banqueting facilities have recently been improved spectacularly with the addition of a brand new building building capable of staging functions for up to eight hundred seated and 1100 standing people.
This building has a specially 8
commissioned glass dome which is a replica of one destroyed in the Second World War. It was designed in Switzerland and is large enough to accommodate eight full size palm trees which give a wonderful tropical feel, especially in the cold and frost of early January!
The club also has a superb a-la-carte fine dining room, two self-service brasseries, several traditionally decorated ‘quiet’ rooms for reading and a conservatory, which contains a variety of plants and shrubs, all of which are maintained by the gardening team. Despite all these fantastic indoor facilities, the jewel in the crown of the Hurlingham Club has always been the extensive grounds with its sports facilities and gardens.
The club has been in existence since 1869 and little has changed since its inception. The grounds provide a living landscape to be enjoyed by the members with the emphasis on providing something for everyone. There are formal and non-formal planted areas providing a colourful
display of annual, biannual and perennial plants. Numerous ornamental lawn areas, all of which have to be presented to a very high standard, are looked over by an impressive variety of trees, with a row of magnificent London planes taking pride of place at the front of the grandiose clubhouse.
The outdoor grass sports facilities comprise thirty tennis courts, ten full size croquet lawns, two bowling greens and a cricket ground with a twelve-pitch square. In addition, there are twenty-two artificial tennis courts including three acrylic covered courts under the tennis dome, and a winter 9 hole par 3 pitch and putt golf course.
Although the sports surfaces are a very important part of the grounds, the incredible, and ever increasing variety of plants, shrubs and trees that make up the gardens are given equal billing.
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