Blackheath

Blackheath Football Club moved to the Rectory Field in 1883, leasing the old Charlton rectory and a nine-and-a-half-acre field from the Maryon-Wilson estate. In 1885 the Blackheath Morden Cricket Club asked to share the ground; the estate agreed on condition that a company be formed to maintain it, and the Blackheath Cricket, Football and Lawn Tennis Company was founded with £3,000 in £1 shares. The lease named all three games, and tennis has been played on the site ever since.

The ground had a sporting importance beyond its size. England played rugby internationals here between 1886 and 1909, and Kent played first-class cricket on it from 1887 to 1971. The Kent County Championships, founded in 1887, were played on the tennis club’s courts until the event ended in 1930. When the lease ran out the members raised £9,000 in debentures and bought the field in 1921.

Today the club has eleven courts at the north side of the ground, three of them grass. They are open from May to September and played on a turn-up basis, booked on a whiteboard rather than online. Blackheath is the grass court as one part of a Victorian multi-sport ground, kept by a club that still shares its field with rugby and cricket.