Welcome to Wimbledon Park Heritage Group
Heritage Group announcers support for the All England parkland development
Wow! That is an incredible statement from a group who have spent over 25 years protecting the Golf Club land from development. How did this change in view come about and what does it mean for us, the residents and the parkland?
It must have been around 2009 when I visited Ian Ritchie, the then Chief Executive of the All England Club where we had a conversation regarding how to improve relations between the Club and the residents in the neighbourhood of the club. The issue was that residents were concerned because the All England held the freehold to the Wimbledon Park Golf Club land, albeit subject to the lease held by the Golf Club. What would the All England do with the land? What could be done to improve the concerns of residents?
It didn’t take more than a second from me to reply, ‘Extend the Golf Club lease to the land by a hundred years!’ Both Ian and I laughed, but then he understood that I was very serious and he told me that this was something for the board to consider. Perhaps, a month later he wrote to me to say that the Club couldn’t make such a decision at that time.
