Raven's Ait is an ait (island) in the Thames at Surbiton, in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, London, England, in the reach above Teddington Lock. It is situated upstream of Queen's Promenade[1] where it departs from the river, and opposite Thames Sailing Club,[2] home of the Thames A Class Raters.[3] Access is from Queen's Promenade, by ferry.
Level with the upstream accommodation block is an area on the Surrey bank that the locals used as a car park, but which is actually an old draw dock.
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Long owned or leased by The Navy League, then the charity responsible for the Sea Cadet Corps and the Girls' Nautical Training Corps, Raven's Ait was the home of TS Neptune, a major sailing, canoeing and boating training establishment until The Navy League invested instead in TS Royalist a small Brig.
Until 1970 the buildings were the familiar wooden clad "Sea Cadet Blue", with very old style dormitories and a very naval discipline. In 1971 a major rebuilding operation started, with the entire accommodation except the superintendent's house rebuilt by Haymills Construction. That rebuilding replaced all the old wooden buildings with today's island buildings, which became a conference and wedding centre. During the rebuilding a small number of activities were carried on downstream of Kingston upon Thames, at the Albany Park sailing base opposite The Royal Canoe Club, with instructors commuting daily by boat.
During the 1980s the Inner London Education Centre used these facilities as a youth and community workers training centre and a water sports activity facility.
The Ravens Ait Hall Management Company Ltd,[4] went into administration and closed in December 2008.[5]
In early 2009 the island and facilities were occupied by squatters who had the declared aim of turning it into an eco conference centre, and indeed held at least one major environmental conference during their stay. In March 2009 legal action was taken to evict the squatters.[6] The squatters were evicted on 1 May 2009 with mixed views from the local community. According to local media reports during their stay they had used as much electric power as would supply 45 homes However this was disputed by squatters who said that this was because before they arrived large industrial refrigerators and other appliances had been left running by the owners. .[7] The Council, who took the property back from the squatters, have been accused of failing to recycle the office equipment and furniture and instead dumping it in landfill.[8]
Raven's Ait was accredited by the Royal Yachting Association and by the British Canoe Union to conduct training in their respective disciplines. It also provided a semi-permanent mooring for Sparkle, a catamaran designed by Angus Primrose to be sailed by persons of restricted physical ability and mobility.
The boats were almost all naval stock, and all diesel powered:
Basic pulling skills were taught, usually to Sea Cadets, either in the ASC or in one of a pair of admiralty whalers (a clinker built pulling boat of approximately 28' LOA, slim beam, designed for naval pulling races, but originally a practical ship's boat)
Boats were a mixture of typical naval stock and somewhat strengthened "ordinary" dinghies.
There were the following fleets:
| Next island upstream | River Thames | Next island downstream |
| Thames Ditton Island | Raven's Ait | Steven's Eyot |