The battle for SW19's green and pleasant heritage park

Plans to expand the All England Lawn Tennis Club have led to a protracted battle over planning

- Joe Middleton

Strawberries and cream, Pimms, and Murray Mound are phrases reserved for one of the great British sporting spectacles: Wimbledon. Thousands of people will soon descend on SW19 to breathe in the captivating atmosphere and see tennis’s top stars, such as Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Coco Gauff.

The competition will get underway today, and as people walk towards the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) along Church Road, they will spot a bit of land that used to be a golf club. This land has been the subject of a contentious planning row.

AELTC bought the lease for the neighbouring Wimbledon Park Golf Club for a reported £65m in 2018, and has ambitious plans for the site, which also incorporates Wimbledon Park Lake. It wants to build 38 new courts, including a third show court with a seating capacity of 8,000 and a retractable roof, as well as designated north and south player hubs, while also providing publicly accessible parkland.

Under the proposals, originally submitted in 2021, the grounds would almost triple in size, allowing Wimbledon to host the qualifying tournaments in SW19 rather than at their current venue a couple of miles away in Roehampton.

The work is projected to be completed in 2030, delivering an increase in the capacity of the championships from 42,000 to 50,000 along with “benefits relating to heritage open space, recreation and community”. However, the application is in gridlock. The ambitious scheme has not gone down well with some residents, who have set up a campaign group, Save Wimbledon Park, to object to the development and garnered thousands of petition signatures.