Hanover Bicycle Club Polytechnic Cycling Club

The Polytechnic Cycling Club was founded as the Ian Bicycling Club in 1878 in the Salisbury Street, Strand, branch of the Youths' Christian Institute, and named for the infant son of the Institute's founder, Quintin Hogg. It initially comprised mainly clerks. Hogg bought some machines for the members and their activities at that period apparently consisted of recreational rides. The club was succeeded by the Hanover Bicycle Club (named from the Institute premises in Hanover Street) in 1881-1882. It organised runs and tours, and annual races were held in August each year from 1882. Following the removal of the Institute to premises in Regent Street, formerly occupied by the Royal Polytechnic Institution, in 1882, the name was changed to the Polytechnic Cycling Club in 1885.

The Polytechnic Cycling Club Gazette was started in 1891. The Club grew rapidly. Members made regular excursions on Saturday afternoons with longer trips at holiday times, and during the winter months there was a social programme in conjunction with other Polytechnic clubs. From 1893 it had a club room in no 309 Regent Street. The Club began to organise its own competitions for track and road, and a number of races and time trials were established. Members competed, individually and in teams, at home and abroad, and became successful at the highest level: Alec Watson was the first national champion in 1893, Albert Edward 'Jenny' Walters won the Bol d'Or 24-hour race in Paris in a world record time in 1899, W J ('Bill') Bayley was world champion at 1,000 metres in 1909-1913, and David Edward Ricketts (b 1920) was bronze medallist in the 4,000 metres pursuit at the Olympic Games in London in 1948. By the time the Club celebrated its 60th anniversary in 1938, members had won five world, two Olympic and 62 national and Empire championships. Several successful members went on to become professional cyclists. The Club's first president was J E K Studd, succeeded in 1944 by Lord Hailsham (grandson of the Polytechnic's founder, Lord Chancellor, and well know for cycling around London).

When Regent Street Polytechnic became the Polytechnic of Central London (PCL) in 1970, relations with the sports and social clubs - which had been an integral part of Quintin Hogg's vision for the Polytechnic - were redefined as part of the new constitutional arrangements. They became legally separate, though some links remained. Further changes were made following the Education Reform Act of 1988. The Cycling Club lost its club room in Regent Street in 1989, but continued to use the Quintin Hogg Memorial Ground at Chiswick. In the same year the Institute of Polytechnic Sports and Social Clubs was formed to support the needs of club members and to provide a link with PCL and later with the University of Westminster.