The Boat Race public tests are in November at the British Indoor Rowing Championships, where each university sends around 20 rowers to compete. Everyone races 2 km on an indoor rower with the club presidents using adjacent machines. Both universities also send crews to the Head of the River Fours race in London, which is raced over the reverse Boat Race course, that is to say the Championship course from Mortlake to Putney. In December, the coaches put out "Trial Eights" where two crews from the same university race each other over the full Boat Race course. These crews are given names such
Mortlake followed by an infants school in 1890 and county level, into secondary level school in 1906. Katherine Jenkins, classical singer, lives in Mortlake. Mortlake's most famous former resident is John Dee (1527–1608/09), mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, alchemist and adviser to Queen Elizabeth I. He lived at Mortlake from 1565 to 1595 except for the six years between 1583 and 1589 when he was travelling in Europe. His house no longer exists but it became the Mortlake Tapestry Works and at the end of the 18th century was a girls' school. Sir Christopher Packe (1593?–1682), Lord Mayor of London, lived in Mortlake