Club History

City of Brighton and Hove is one of the newest – but also the oldest swimming club in England!

In April 2024, Hove club Shiverers SC joined Brighton Swimming Club – and the City of Brighton and Hove Swimming Club was born – making us one of the newest swimming Clubs in England. The union of two such long standing clubs, and Brighton formally changing its name to City of Brighton and Hove means we’re also the oldest!

Shiverers SC – named after it’s founders’ drive to keep Hove swimming baths open through the winter – began in 1920 making it one of the oldest swimming clubs in the country.

Brighton SC is recognised by Swim England as the country’s oldest continuously running swimming club.  Founded in 1860, the sea swimming section has been in daily operation ever since – with just a short break during the Second World War when the beaches were off limits. While maintaining its sea swimming section throughout, the club encompassed pool swimming when public baths came into use at the end of the 19th century.

The proposal to merge Brighton and Shiverers is not new – it was first mooted in the 1970’s. Its just taken a very long time, and a lot of work to make it happen!

Despite the local rivalry, Brighton and Shiverers have a long, shared history. In the past so many swimmers had membership of both clubs that each had a rule that swimmers could only compete in one club’s championships. Brighton swimmers who wanted to play polo played at Shiverers (often referred to as Brighton Shiverers), before polo transferred to BSC. And as recently as the 1980’s the two squads often trained together and shared facilities – and sometimes even competed as ‘Brighton and Hove’.

The catalyst for merging the clubs was Covid. The pandemic nudged the clubs to work more closely together and share facilities; by collaborating we were able to give the council and the pool operators the financial confidence to reopen the city’s pools for the benefit of everyone. The pandemic served as a powerful  reminder that the clubs were serving the same community, and that we could achieve more together than we could as rivals. Hence the hashtag #bettertogether.

Today, the pool based section constitutes one of the city’s largest youth clubs, while the sea section thrives at a time of enormous interest in open water swimming.

All sections rely heavily on the voluntary efforts of its membership. Our helpers can all take pride in providing an important part in the continuation of our heritage.