After World War I there was an increase in membership from shipwrights, boilermakers and stevedores from the nearby shipyards and docks, although the depression in the 1930s led to reduced activity again.

Club president Mrs Woodward Fisher, who also ran a prominent lighterage business together with her late husband W. J. Woodward-Fisher, in Limehouse, took the helm in securing funds, "Mrs Fisher was wonderful and got all sorts of people on board.

The building has a strong modernist aesthetic, particularly visibly when seen from the South side of the river, characteristic of the architects’ previous projects which include the Harrison Gibson furniture showroom in Ilford, East London.

Taking the period since 2000 alone, PBDRC has seen members win more than 10 regattas and winter head races.

In 1995 and 1996, juniors from the club (in a composite quad with the Windsor Boys' School) won the Fawley Challenge Cup at Henley Regatta.