Oxford University Boat House
The former boathouse, located within a flood plain on the bank of the River Thames in Wallingford was built in the 1880s, and was completely destroyed in a fire in 1999.
The new training facility replaces the old University Boathouse and boasts a ‘dry boathouse’ to house the squad’s fleet of race boats, a wet store for coaching launches, changing rooms, and a link building to offices and two club rooms – one for dining, and another for alumni and the display of memorabilia.
A swing bridge along the route of the Thames Path allows access of boats from the river into the wet boathouse, which was founded on steel sheet piles with a reinforced concrete capping beam.
The building was designed to allow flooding of the ground floor during elevated river levels of up to the predicted 1:100 year flood height in order to ensure zero impact of the new construction on the flood plain area.
Guests at the opening were invited to tour the new boathouse and watch a procession of boats row past, including one crew of members who represented Great Britain in the 1960 Olympic Games.
