Heritage Group Supports All England Parkland Development Plan

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.

Then everything changed on 12 December 2018, when the All England made their intentions clear to develop the Golf Club land by offering over £80,000 to every member of the Golf Club to vote on terminating their leasehold on the land. The vote passed and The All England gained full control of the golf course land.

Initially, there was quite simply shock because there was no doubt we had come to an end of an era where the golf course acted as a buffer between the major architecture of the All England and the rest of us. In a sense, the protecting of the Golf Club was a bit misplaced because the Club was a private Club and unless you were a member, you really didn’t have an opportunity to walk the land or enjoy the land, but from afar.

Nevertheless, it was nice to look over the fence at the view and consider that this is a Capability Brown aspect. In fact, it actually wasn’t a Capability Brown landscape anymore because over a hundred years ago in 1898 the Golf Club was formed and in 1914 with the Wimbledon Corporation Act, gained control of the land, They then began work to change the Capability Brown landscape by creating a series of fairways lined by trees, which were suitable for playing golf. Good bye Capability Brown!

Time passed and during 2022/3 the All England revealed their plan for the parkland. More shock! 38 new grass courts located roughly opposite the Club’s location on Church Road, plus a new 8,000 seat capacity show court near to Church Road. However, the All England would de-silt the lake which would greatly improve its usability and create a walk way around the lake, so we all can enjoy it. Create a new park along Home Park Road for all of us to use. All the veteran trees would remain protected and much work would be done to improve the biodiversity of the parkland.

This created a storm of protest from the residents, which was certainly no surprise. For the Heritage Group, I remained essentially quite at this time because I could see the potential of the All England plan and have to admit that at my age, I wasn’t going to chain myself to the gates of the All England Club!

Then something happened which changed everything in my view. The All England realising the level of opposition added provisions to their planning application which would include work in the Merton controlled public park. Replace the toilets, upgrade the kid’s playing area, upgrade the kid’s water play area, provide a new boating facility and other items to greatly improve the public park. Plus create a new four acre public park at the north end of the Golf Club land.

Wow! That was a major improvement and something that I would never have expected from the All England.

So, to reconsider: The land between the lake and Church Road would be pretty much tennis and nothing else. However, the new tennis complex as joined to the current All England facility would produce the greatest tennis complex in the world, and aren’t we lucky that Wimbledon is played on grass instead of black asphalt or orange clay, so we at least retain our green overview. What does it take to create the greatest in the World? Well this is it and I have to think in the long term it will be worth while for us and future generations. 

In addition to that, we the residents will have access to the whole of the park along Home Park Road and to the four acres park at the North end of the parkland, plus cleaning up the lake and creating a walkway around it, which no one has ever had complete access to. All of this, along with very important improvements to the Merton public park.

Yes! That gets my vote in Support for the All England Plan!

And for the Heritage Group’s involvement in the Park, that doesn’t change. We just now have a new reinvented parkland that will require monitoring and making sure the public get the best use of this endowment from The All England Club.