Gouache illustration of The All England Club
Illustration from Grass Tennis (Dagda Media)

Great grass clubs · Britain

The All England Club

The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club · Wimbledon, London

London, Greater London, United Kingdom · Members club, Tournament venue

No. 1, World's Greatest Grass Clubs No. 1, Innovative Grass Clubs Davis Cup or BJK Cup grass venue
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GRASS TENNIS CLUB ★ ★ ★ NO. 1 WORLD'SGREATESTGRASS CLUBS

No. 1, World's Greatest Grass Clubs

Among the world's greatest grass clubs

See the World's Greatest Grass Clubs
GRASS TENNIS CLUB ★ ★ ★ NO. 1 INNOVATIVEGRASS CLUBS

No. 1, Innovative Grass Clubs

Setting standards; sharing knowledge

Primary driver: Innovation & Leadership

Read the full ranking and our reasoning

Where the championship game began, and where it is still played on grass.

Facts

Location
Church Road, Wimbledon, London
Founded
1868, as the All England Croquet Club; lawn tennis from 1875
Grass courts
18 tournament courts at Church Road; 22 practice courts at Aorangi Park
On the grass
The Championships, since 1877; Olympic tennis in 1908 and 2012
Visitors
Members only; the public comes as spectators
Other courts
8 clay
Season
Members
Address
Church Road, Wimbledon Village, London Borough of Merton, London, Greater London, SW19 5DW, United Kingdom
Competitive grass
4 Davis Cup or BJK Cup ties, latest 2008

Why it is special

Six gentlemen founded the All England Croquet Club at the offices of The Field on 23 July 1868. In 1875 one croquet lawn was set aside for the new game, and in July 1877, short of the money to mend its pony roller, the club held a lawn tennis championship. Spencer Gore won it, and remarked that the game would never rank among the great ones.

The crowds Suzanne Lenglen drew outgrew Worple Road, and in 1922 the club moved to Church Road and a new Centre Court. Bombs struck it in October 1940 and destroyed 1,200 seats. Since then the courts have been cut to eight millimetres, resown in 2001 with pure perennial ryegrass, and covered on Centre Court by a retractable roof first used in 2009.

Every great grass club measures its lawns, in one way or another, against these. The club is the reference point for grass-court agronomy, and its grounds team is still finding new ways to take the surface beyond Church Road.

Champions here, 2017 to 2026

Year Men's singles Women's singles
2017 Roger Federer Garbiñe Muguruza
2018 Novak Djokovic Angelique Kerber
2019 Novak Djokovic Simona Halep
2020 Not held Not held
2021 Novak Djokovic Ashleigh Barty
2022 Novak Djokovic Elena Rybakina
2023 Carlos Alcaraz Markéta Vondroušová
2024 Carlos Alcaraz Barbora Krejčíková
2025 Jannik Sinner Iga Świątek
2026 Jannik Sinner Linda Nosková

Every champion on the roll: Wimbledon

About the club

The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, home of the Wimbledon Championships, is listed with 38 grass courts, including Centre Court and Court No. 1. The club has 20 grass practice courts and eight clay courts. The grounds, including car parks, cover over 42 acres and can accommodate up to 42,000 spectators.

The club staged Davis Cup ties on grass against Egypt in 1996, Ecuador in 2000, Croatia in 2007 and Austria in 2008.

More grass tennis in Greater London

All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club is one of 78 clubs in the Grass Court Atlas for the United Kingdom. The nearest other grass court clubs listed are Spencer Lawn Tennis Club (3.3 km), Roehampton Club (4.6 km) and Hurlingham Club (4.7 km).

Official website: All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club

Competitive grass record

Dated proof the grass was in match play
Date Competition Tie Result Source
September 19–21, 2008 Davis Cup, WG play-offs Great Britain v Austria 2–3 Wikipedia
21–23 September 2007 Davis Cup, WG play-offs Great Britain v Croatia 4–1 Wikipedia
14–16 July 2000 Davis Cup, WG qualifying round Great Britain v Ecuador 2–3 Wikipedia
20–22 September 1996 Davis Cup, Europe/Africa Zone Gp II Great Britain v Egypt 5–0 Wikipedia

Photographs

Courts at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (Wimbledon) Members see 1 more
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