What to do in Wimbledon

Wimbledon is a sleepy green suburb of South London, which has achieved worldwide fame that is completely out of proportion to its size and importance thanks to the annual Wimbledon tennis championships, probably the most famous tennis tournament in the world, which is held at Wimbledon Lawn Tennis club every four years.

Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club is open all year round and it attracts visitors for the remaining 50 weeks a year that the tennis tournament is not on. Specially trained Blue Badge guides offer year-round guided tours of the championship grounds, which offer visitors access to restricted areas that are normally closed to the public. A new museum was scheduled to be opened in April 2006, which will replace the exhibition hall in the Visitor Centre that follows the history of tennis and includes tennis equipments, a racket maker’s workshop, championship trophies and video footage of past and present tennis stars in action.

Wimbledon is essentially a quiet suburb and it has little to offer sightseers apart from the Lawn Tennis championship grounds. For those who want to relax, there are plenty of local parks and green spaces, the largest being Wimbledon Common and nearby Wimbledon Park. There is a selection of local restaurants and pubs to suit a variety of tastes. The area is also well served by public transport, with regular trains running from Waterloo Station to Wimbledon Station and London Underground trains running to local stations including Wimbledon Park and Wimbledon on the District Line and South Wimbledon and Morden on the Northern Line. Meanwhile, extensive local bus services make getting there and back easy.

The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum is a new museum that replaced the Wimbledon Visitor Centre in the year 2006. Like the Visitor Centre, the new museum explores the history of tennis and includes championship trophies, tennis memorabilia and video footage.