The Club Today
We’re a club run by our members for the benefit of our members and of the wider community. We’re not a business or a training centre. Our instructors are all qualified, but they are volunteers as are our dive managers.
We meet once a week on Tuesday nights to train our members, to practice skills and to socialise – come and meet us here.
We have a club boat which we keep in Portland Marina. We dive off that several times per year, but we also organise diving trips all over the UK and abroad too. To see this year’s diving calendar click here.
If you’re interested in joining us please click here. We hope to meet you soon!
Our History
Our club, BSAC No.1 London Branch, is the original branch of the British Sub-Aqua Club and remains one of the biggest London diving clubs today.
The inaugural meeting of the branch was held on 15th October 1953 hosted by Oscar Gugen at the Waldorf Hotel, attended by some 50 enthusiasts.
The BSAC London Branch became the first branch created as a result of national recognition by the Sports Council of the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) in 1954, when the existing committee became the general committee of the national BSAC.
By 1955 the No.1 branch had over 400 members and became the pre-eminent diver training branch in London in the 1950s and 1960s.
Many members subsequently formed other branches or set up dive centres in the UK and around the world.
Divers trained by our club over the years have included Arthur C Clarke, Kenneth More, Lord Hailsham, Esther Williams, Mike Brennan, Tony Daniels, Tim Smit and Rowena Kerr.
For more details on the history of our club, please visit our Wikipedia page.