The green-domed Clubhouse was built in 1907 to accommodate the race track officials such as stewards, the Clerk of the Scales and the Clerk of the Course. Enjoy the period atmosphere and the evocative room settings including the Ladies' Reading Room and the Clerk of the Course’s Office.
The Clubhouse housed a weighbridge for the cars, changing rooms for the drivers and a large open viewing stand for the press facing south across the circuit. Although anybody was allowed to join the BARC, few enthusiasts could afford to and, with its slogan “The Right Crowd and No Crowding”, the club only admitted into the building those wearing their member's or member's guest badges.
In 1947 the building was occupied by Barnes Wallis as part of the Vickers-Armstrongs Research and Development Department. Many alterations were made when rooms were turned into drawing offices and the original drivers’ bathroom was adapted as a shower room for those who worked in the newly-built Stratosphere Chamber next door. The Clerk of the Course’s Office and Ladies’ Reading Room have been refurbished and form part of the Clubhouse displays.
Plan your visit
Clubhouse and Paddock
Museum Map >
Step free access to ground floor
Accessibility at the Museum >
DISCOVER THE STORIES
Tales from Brooklands:
Ethel Locke King
Ethel Locke King, who oversaw much of the track's construction at Brooklands and was a vital member of the Surrey division of the Red Cross during World War One.
Ethel was born in 1864 in Hobart, Tasmania where her father, Sir Thomas Gore-Browne, was governor. As a result, she had a not inconsiderable fortune but was not willing to satisfy herself with the normal pursuits of society ladies. She married Hugh Locke King in 1884 and they set off almost immediately to Cairo due to Hugh's weak health.
DISCOVER THE STORIES
Tales from Brooklands:
Dame Barbara Cartland
Most people have heard of Barbara Cartland, few know that she should, correctly, be known as Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland, Dame of the British Empire. Fewer still know of her as a winner of the 1984 Bishop Wright Air Industry Award, as a County Councillor and champion of the Traveller community. In a full and varied life she did all of this and much more. As many people do know, she wrote more books in her life than anyone else has done to date.
By the 1920’s Barbara Cartland was earning a good living as a society journalist and subsequently also a romantic novelist. She was attending the society events at places like Brooklands Motor Course.
