The Club & Its History

Royal Blackheath Golf Club claims the title of the oldest golf club in England — founded in 1608 when James I’s Scottish courtiers brought the game south to the heath at Greenwich. Whether or not this origin story is entirely accurate matters less than the fact that the club’s archives, clubhouse and traditions carry genuine historical weight of a kind that no other golf club in England can match. Walking into the Eltham Lodge clubhouse — a Christopher Wren-attributed Grade I listed building — is to enter a building that has housed golf’s history for over four centuries.

The course itself, relocated to its current Eltham site in 1923, is a pleasant South East London parkland of around 6,200 yards to a par of 70. It is not, by any honest assessment, a great golf course — the layout is relatively undistinguished, the setting suburban, and the challenge modest by the standards of the courses it claims kinship with through history. But that is almost entirely beside the point. You do not play Royal Blackheath for the golf; you play it for the experience of standing in the oldest golf club in England and connecting with four centuries of the game’s history through the act of playing a round on its home course.

The Clubhouse

Eltham Lodge — the club’s home since 1923 — is one of the finest 17th-century country houses in South East London, attributed to Hugh May and possibly involving Christopher Wren in its design. Inside, the panelled rooms contain an extraordinary collection of golf memorabilia, historical documents and artefacts that tell the story of the game from its earliest days in England. A guided tour before or after golf is essential for any visitor with an interest in the game’s history.