Belle Founder

The Belle Founder is for those who enjoy messing about on the river.

It is a Thames Cutter, which is a replica of the boats that used to be London's taxis plying their trade up and down the Thames. It has six oars, fixed seats and two flags. It is moored at Richmond bridge.

We row in races organised by the Thames Traditional Rowing Association. The season begins in March on Boat Race Day with a row along the course from Putney to Chiswick two hours before the students take over and paddle after us. 

There are two longer events. The first is the ceremonial procession called the Tudor Pull which is rowed from Richmond to the Tower of London. We have the canopy up for this, and there are velvet seats for our passengers. Every race has to have a passenger and volunteers for this honoured role are always welcome too. One of the great things about rowing the Belle is the opportunity to see London from the different perspective of the river.

The longest row is the Great River Race along the 22 miles from the Isle of Dogs to Teddington. There are 300 other boats of all shapes and sizes. It is rightly called the river marathon, and is a 2 1/2 hour monster.

We also have occasional social rows with hampers. The sun shines, the oars splash, and we eat cake and drink fizzy wine. In 2022 we rowed with 150 other crews in the memorial procession  for the Queen from Imperial Wharf to Tower Bridge.  It was in the dark of the evening and all the boats were lit by white fairy lights. That will linger long in the memory. We were led by the Queen's barge Gloriana. All the bridges were spectacularly lit, and they opened Tower Bridge for us to pull through in style.

In 2023 we are aiming to row the length of the Thames from Lechlade to Richmond as a fundraiser for the Founders' Charities. This will take four or five days and volunteers for rowing, passengers, support vehicle and ideas for accommodation overnight always welcome - as well as sponsorship!

We do occasionally win. In 2022 we won the mixed crew event in the Admiral's Cup which is from Westminster to Chelsea. We therefore welcome everybody to join us, whether an experienced rower, or someone who's never had a go before.

If you’d like to join the rowing team please contact the office by going to the Contact Us section of the website