My Wimbledon Tennis Tour in England

As the world’s oldest tennis tournament and the only one that is being played on grass, Wimbledon is the holy grail of tennis. It is considered as most highly-regarded tennis tournament in the world and for every professional tennis player, playing in, and winning Wimbledon, is their ultimate dream.

But for the rest of us who are not tennis professionals, a Wimbledon Tour is the best that we can do, to get up close and personal to the holy grounds.

The Best Way To See the Wimbledon Championships Grounds

During my time in London, I took a Wimbledon Tour of the All England Club, which is the home of Wimbledon.

For every tennis fan, such a tour is the best way to witness for yourself, the history and splendour of the Wimbledon Championships and the grounds. As well, you also get to set foot into otherwise restricted areas.

I may not play tennis much, but I watch the games on television, so I had been quite eager to see the Wimbledon lawn tennis club with my own eyes.

Easy To Reach Wimbledon by Tube from London

Wimbledon is quite easy to get to; from Central London, the Wimbledon Station is a short 20-minute ride on the tube and from there, it is a quick bus ride away.

The Wimbledon tours are £25 each and there are several tours that run throughout the day from 10:30am till late afternoon.

It is recommended to book the tour in advance in case the timing that you want is fully sold out.

For myself, the tour that I was booked on, began at 11:30am in the morning.

Main Tour Highlights

Each tour is 90 minutes long and you are taken through the grounds of the All England Club by an expert guide.

It is a very comprehensive tour and you really get to see everything, with the main highlights of the tour easily being the following areas.

The Fred Perry Statue

This is the very first thing that you see upon setting foot into the grounds of the All England Club.

The statue honours Fred Perry, an English tennis legend who had been the first player to win a Career Grand Slam. He also won Wimbledon three years in a row (1934-1936).

I decided to pose for a photo with the statue – for the memories, when I had spotted it.

Royal Box

This is an invite-only section of Center Court that is usually occupied by members of the Royal Family and their guests.

Players Entrance

This is the passageway that the tennis players take to the tennis grounds.

Press Areas

This is the media area, where television viewers would see the players give their interviews and hold press conferences.

I studied Media & Communications and I am currently working in the area, so for me, I had thought it was nice to see what the press room for a major competition such as Wimbledon, actually looks like.

Here, I also had a good time posing at the interview table together with my friend, both of us pretending to be the Women’s Doubles champions and ready to take on the media firing line!

Aorangi Terrace

This is a scenic, grassy area of the club near Court No. 1, where spectators gather in droves to watch tennis matches on the giant screen.

Centre Court

This was easily the main highlight of the tour, in my opinion.

Centre Court is the main showpiece court at The Wimbledon Championships and I thought that it was amazingly breathtaking, to see this very court with my very own eyes.

Literally seeing Centre Court stretching out in front of me, felt completely different to seeing it on television, even though, unfortunately, no games were being played during our tour.

At Centre Court, I also noticed that the scoreline of both the last Men’s and Women’s tennis match to be played there, were still being displayed.

Court No. 1

Besides Centre Court, this one is the other showpiece court at the All England Club and I thought that it too, looks impressive.

Our Guide Was Great

Throughout the tour, our guide was also excellent and she knew her history very well. She shared plenty of tennis-related facts, anecdotes and stories, as she was bringing us around the grounds.

Also, the way that she had initially broken the ice at the beginning when our group had first gathered together was great, and her occasional jokes also kept me hanging onto her every word.

I Learnt A Lot

As a result, during the 90 Minutes, I also learnt a lot about how the arena was maintained as well as more about the Champion players. It was very enjoyable, yet educational and interesting and I would strongly recommend this tour for all tennis fans.

My only gripe was that this walking tour had comprised of quite a number of stairs… so maybe it had not been the best decision for me to take this tour the next day after I had completed the London Marathon.

But that said, I would strongly recommend that you wear comfortable clothes and shoes that are suited to walking, if you decide to embark on this tour.

And it is best to go light too, because there are no cloakroom facilities. Should you bring any heavy jackets or coats with you, be prepared to carry these around with you, for the duration of the tour.

The Wimbledon Museum

Besides the Wimbledon Tour, your Wimbledon ticket also entitles you to the Wimbledon Museum, which contains a wealth of tennis history and unique artefacts, which include the Rafael Nadal’s trousers, the first-ever tennis balls used in competition and the Men’s and Women’s Singles trophies.

As well, each exhibit also came with informative stories and descriptions, making it a joy for me to walk through the Museum.

Also, plenty of the exhibits are interactive, including one that allows you to choose and re-watch the highlights of every Wimbledon final in history.

Want to relive the time when Maria Sharapova won the Women’s Singles Title at Wimbledon as an unknown 17-year-old in 2004?

Or that epic 2008 Wimbledon Men’s Singles final match between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, still considered by many as one of the greatest matches in tennis history?

Yes, you can re-watch the key moments of both of these, and more, at the Wimbledon Museum.

On-Site Cafe

A tennis library and a souvenir shop is also available, as well as a cafe, where you can go and get a bite to refuel after all that walking.

For myself, I had a savoury scone with butter and jam at the cafe, but according to what I’ve heard, their speciality is supposed to be the Strawberries & Cream.

Apparently the Strawberries & Cream is the most famous food at the Wimbledon Championships, to the extent that there had, interestingly, even been a section at the Museum dedicated to this.

So I had learnt that more than 28,000 kilograms of strawberries are consumed at a Wimbledon Championships event, together with 7,000 Litres of fresh cream.

Plenty To See And Do

In all, I spent a total of around three to four hours at the Wimbledon grounds, simply soaking everything up. That is because there was simply so much to see and do there. And this also included browsing through the souvenir shop to see what was available there.

The souvenirs, probably to nobody’s surprise, were over-priced, but then again, if you are a massive tennis fan and want a memento to bring back home, then I’d say that the Wimbledon shop is probably the only place where you can get these.