Plans to expand Wimbledon are set to go before the U.K. High Court.
The All England Club (AELTC), host of the third Grand Slam tournament of the tennis season, wants to add a third stadium court and 38 further courts to its footprint, tripling its size in works expected to cost over £200million ($254.8million).
The Greater London Authority (GLA) granted planning permission in September, but campaign group Save Wimbledon Park (SWP) has now instructed lawyers to challenge the decision, which could ultimately lead to a judicial review in the High Court.
It has “sent a lengthy formal letter setting out our case to the GLA, copied to both Merton and Wandsworth Councils and to the AELTC,” according to a spokesperson’s statement seen by The Athletic Wednesday December 11.
The letter is required as part of the “pre-action protocol” for a judicial review. In it, SWP’s law firm, Russell Cooke, invites the GLA to confirm it will reconsider the planning permission. This would involve quashing the grant. The firm requests a “substantive reply” by December 16; the letter is dated December 6.
A spokesperson for Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said: “The Mayor believes this scheme will bring a significant range of benefits including economic, social and cultural benefits to the local area, the wider capital and the UK economy, creating new jobs and cementing Wimbledon’s reputation as the greatest tennis competition in the world.
“City Hall will respond to Save Wimbledon Park’s letter in due course.”
Separately, the AELTC confirmed December 1 that it will challenge a key tenet of SWP and other residents’ groups objections to the plans in the High Court. SWP argues that when AELTC bought the freehold to the Wimbledon site and the adjacent park in 1993, it fell under a statutory trust which requires that land to be kept free for public recreation.
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The AELTC argues that “there is not, nor has there ever been, a statutory trust affecting the former Wimbledon Park Golf Course land”. It will now take this argument to the High Court in a bid to prove itself right.
The AELTC bought the golf course — whose lease was set to expire in 2041 — for £65million (now $87.1m) in 2018. This led to each member receiving £85,000, and the AELTC argues that it being a private club voids the concept of a statutory trust.
“We have been pointing out for a considerable time that the statutory public recreation trust on which the AELTC hold the heritage golf course land is a fundamental block on the proposed AELTC development,” an SWP spokesperson said.
“We are glad to hear that the AELTC now recognise our point of view and note that they wish to take this to litigation rather than engage in any discussion.”
The AELTC believes its plans will ensure that Wimbledon does not fall behind the Australian, French, and U.S. Opens in terms of prestige.
One of the 39 new courts will be an 8,000-seater stadium, and the other 38 will allow the AELTC to bring the qualifying event on-site. That event is held the week before the main tournament starts, and Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam of the four not to already have its qualifying event on-site. Wimbledon’s third show court, No. 2 Court, is the smallest of the third courts across the majors.
Planning permission for the expansion went to the GLA after Merton and Wandsworth councils failed to agree on them. Merton granted permission in October 2023, before Wandsworth refused it a month later. There is no expected timeline for the AELTC’s case, nor for the judicial review proposed by SWP. AELTC chair Deborah Jevans has said that it wants the new courts in play by the early 2030s.
(Julian Finney / Getty Images)
