Horton and Garton recently spoke with Jonathan Caton, the Founder of Riverside Runners to learn more about the club, how it started and how you can join in!
Every Monday evening outside the George IV pub on Chiswick High Road, something slightly unusual happens. A hundred or so people gather on the pavement, a megaphone crackles to life, a bell rings, and the week’s new faces are introduced by name to a round of applause before a single step has been taken.
By the time the 5k is done and the group has spilled back inside for drinks, a handful of strangers will have become regulars. A few regulars will have become friends.
Riverside Runners is now one of the largest social run clubs in West London. It has almost 400 members, brand partnerships, celebrity runners, and a WhatsApp community that also arranges cycling trips, golf days, pub visits, book lending, and even local plumber referrals. It also has, at its centre, a self-described amateur runner with a megaphone and a talent for organising.
We spoke with founder Jonathan Caton about how it started, what makes it work, and why he is eyeing Los Angeles.
How Riverside Runners began
Before Riverside Runners existed, a small group of around ten people would meet up once a week at Up & Running, a sports shop on Chiswick High Road, to run a single route together. The shop stored their bags, led the run, and gave the group a reason to show up. It was modest, but it worked.
Then in July 2024, Up & Running closed. M&S had acquired the space and expanded into it. The runs stopped with it.
“We didn’t want to stop running,” Jonathan says, “so I took it upon myself to plan something entirely new.” What followed was considerably more ambitious than a replacement meet-up.
Jonathan called the original group together and they worked through everything from scratch. The name. Which days to run and at what time. A mission statement and three values. Who to approach about becoming their new home base. A logo that could actually be printed on a shirt. A shirt colour. The George IV said yes. Eight routes were mapped across West London. A 10k Thursday evening was added alongside the Monday 5k, and a trail run summer series followed later.
Then came the details that would quietly define the club’s character: portable music speakers carried on the run, three pit stops per route to bring the group back together, and a bell rung before every run to mark personal milestones – completed races, new achievements, even a new father. Behind all of it, Jonathan with his megaphone.
“The goal was connection over competition,” he says. “The opportunity was to build something that could become part of the wider tapestry of the West London community – free to join, no registration, as accessible as possible.”
The club also had to exist ubiquitously online. Website, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Strava, and several other sports and community platforms, all built and managed by Jonathan alongside his standard life commitments. “It took a significant effort,” he says, “and actually remains highly time consuming.”
It started small
The early weeks were less triumphant than the current version of Riverside Runners suggests.
“For a good number of weeks we continued to have only 10 to 15 runners, with hardly anyone new,” Jonathan recalls. “It began to feel like hard yards.”
He was teaching himself website design, Instagram reel editing, and logo creation simultaneously.
“You have to show up every Monday, rain, sun, or snow, and still wonder why your efforts don’t appear to be getting the traction you thought they would.”
“Now it’s very different,” Jonathan says. “We hit an inflection point and rapidly started to expand, with new runners, businesses wanting to engage with us, and a lot of chatter online.”
In the 18 months between October 2024 and May 2026, 364 people ran with Riverside Runners for the first time. Monday nights now regularly draw 90 to 100+ runners.
Why Chiswick works for Riverside Runners
Jonathan is precise about what makes the location right. The river is a natural draw.
Chiswick‘s wide pavements can accommodate a hundred people warming up without causing chaos. The parks including Chiswick House and Gardens, Dukes Meadows, Turnham Green, and Ravenscourt Park all give the club a varied and attractive route repertoire.
The flat terrain keeps the pace genuinely inclusive. Even the lit lake at Chiswick Business Park features on evening runs.
The George IV matters too, not just as a post-run pub but as an already active community venue. “It hosts quiz nights, Dungeons and Dragons evenings, salsa, jazz, comedy,” Jonathan says. “We fit naturally into that repertoire.” The club’s blue shirts are now a familiar sight at the reserved courtyard tables.
Transport links extend the reach beyond the immediate neighbourhood. Runners arrive regularly from Hammersmith, Richmond, Kew and central London, coming straight from work on the tube.
What Monday night actually feels like
New joiners are met by AmbassadoRRs, the double R a deliberate nod to the club name – in dedicated t-shirts marked Welcomer, Connector, Vibe Setter. They make introductions, explain the format, and ensure no one is left to figure it out alone.
Jonathan then calls out every new joiner’s name through the megaphone before the run starts. The group applauds. “We typically have between five and ten new joiners every single week,” he says.
At regular pit stops, the group is encouraged to introduce themselves to anyone they don’t know.
A back marker runner ensures no one gets left behind. After the run, new joiners are invited back into the George IV and into the WhatsApp community, where the social life of the club continues well beyond Mondays – there are sub-groups for road biking, golf, and pub meet-ups that have nothing to do with running at all.
“People tell me they’ve made genuinely close friends through Riverside Runners who they honestly think wouldn’t have become so without the club,” Jonathan says. “I’m frequently told this by members.”
Two years on
The club is free to join, free to attend, and has no registration requirement. Brand collaborations cover the running costs, which Jonathan considers a point of principle: accessibility is built into how the club operates, not bolted on.
The majority of new members now find the club through social media or word of mouth.
Asked what he is most proud of, Jonathan does not mention the numbers. He mentions the friendships.
What is next for Riverside Runners
Jonathan’s ambitions include introducing morning run options, an overseas group event, a Riverside Runners organised race with club marshals and prizes, a Park Run volunteer takeover, and a Thames foreshore clean-up. And, prompted by a founding member relocating, a potential branch in Los Angeles!
“We are already one of the largest social run clubs in West London,” he says. “But the offer we bring is what I want to expand.”
Want to run with Riverside Runners?
Weekly 5k runs are free to attend with no registration required. Meet outside the George IV pub, 185 Chiswick High Road, W4 2DR, just before 18:30 every Monday.
A 10k option runs bi-weekly on Thursdays at the same time and location.
Full details at www.riversiderunners.co.uk or follow @riverside_runners_chiswick on Instagram.
Riverside Runners is proudly supported by Horton and Garton.
