All England Lawn Tennis Club

Be a part of sporting history as you explore Wimbledon - host to the world's first and most famous tennis championship.

Tennis became a craze of the well-to-do classes in the mid 19th century, and had a profound effect on their social lives. It was not just about strawberries and cream - for the first time young people of both sexes could mix freely on the tennis courts without the fear of inciting any sort of scandal. In 1875, some of the grass of the All England Croquet Club in Wimbledon was turned over to tennis courts and two years later the world's first lawn tennis championship was held. Twenty-seven year old W. Spencer Gore won the tournament and received 12 guineas for his efforts. Unsurprisingly, it rained on the day of the final. In 1922 The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club was opened at its current site on Church Road by King George V. Soak in the atmosphere in this historic stadium, built with remarkable foresight to hold 14,000 people - a design that popularised the game in a way that has not been seen since.