The balcony is up. Standing on Putney Embankment this morning, you can see it: the London Rowing Club’s new deep-blue steel structure running the full width of the Victorian facade, ornate ironwork railings in place, an LRC flag flying from the flagpole above. One worker was still on the balcony today, drilling the last handrail fixings into position. Almost done.
The project was approved by the Conservation Panel last July, a design that was always intended to echo the club’s Victorian origins rather than overlay them. The ironwork detailing does exactly that. The structure was built by contractor Fothergill to designs by Stuart Hughes Architects, whose names are still visible on the project hoarding at street level.
Putney rowing gets its biggest showcase of the year on 4 April — Boat Race Day, five weeks away, when the embankment is at its busiest. This will be the first time the balcony is open for the race, and the first time most people will see it in full use.
It has been a long build, documented here since the engineering phase in January. The photographs from this morning show how far it has come: the Thames visible at low tide from beneath the structure, the flagpole collar and baseplate bolted in, the blue of the ironwork clean against the Victorian brick. Just the handrails to complete.
It is worth a walk past.
