The Wimbledon Championships run for two weeks from late June into mid-July, on the grass of the All England Club in Wimbledon, a leafy corner of southwest London. It rewards being treated as a trip rather than a day out: the tickets take planning, but so do the beds, and the city and countryside around the grounds are half the reason to come.
Fly into Heathrow or Gatwick. Gatwick is the easy one for Wimbledon, with a direct Thameslink train to Wimbledon station in about fifty minutes and no changes. From Heathrow it is closer to an hour, on the Piccadilly line and then the District line west, or the Elizabeth line into town and a train back out. Once you are in London the grounds are a short hop: the District line runs to Southfields, a signposted fifteen-minute walk from the gates, or to Wimbledon station, where shuttle buses run on match days.
The grounds sit between Wimbledon Village, leafy and uphill, and the busier town below. The nicest bases are in the Village and on the common. Hotel du Vin occupies Cannizaro House, a country house on Wimbledon Common about twenty minutes' walk from the gates; the Dog and Fox and the Rose and Crown are two old Village pubs with rooms above them; and the Lodge Hotel, over in neighbouring Putney, is a quieter option a short ride away. There are not many rooms this close, and they fill fast and dear for the fortnight, so book months ahead. If they are gone or the prices frighten you, stay central and ride the District line in, which hands you the rest of London for the days you are not at the tennis.
Getting a ticket is its own puzzle, with more ways in than most people realise. The cheapest guaranteed show-court seat comes from the public ballot, a free lottery you enter through the club's website the autumn before, roughly nine months ahead; if your name is drawn you buy a seat at face value, though you cannot choose the match. The famous alternative is the Queue, an orderly overnight camp in Wimbledon Park that sells face-value tickets first come, first served, a few hundred show-court seats and several thousand grounds passes a day. Camp overnight for a show court, or turn up around dawn for a grounds pass.
If camping is not your idea of a holiday, two things help. A grounds pass, at roughly twenty to thirty pounds, is the best value in the place: the outer courts, where top players are drawn a few feet from the fence in the first week, plus Henman Hill and its big screen. And once you are inside, a kiosk resells show-court tickets handed back by people leaving early, about fifteen pounds for Centre Court, all for charity. At the other extreme, debentures and official hospitality packages guarantee a show-court seat for thousands of pounds a day, and they are the only tickets that can legally be resold, so treat touts and resale websites, which are void at the gate, as a trap.
The same Centre Court seat can cost fifteen pounds from a kiosk or six figures as a five-year bond.
The day itself is easy-going. Strawberries and cream have been held near a couple of pounds for years, a glass of Pimm's costs several times that, and you can bring your own picnic and, within limits, a bottle of wine. There is no all-white dress code for spectators, only for the players, though the show courts prefer smart-casual to ripped jeans and sportswear. Centre and No.1 Court have retractable roofs and play through rain, while the outer courts do not. Since 2022 there is play on the Middle Sunday too, and weekdays and the second week are quieter and cheaper than the opening weekend.
Give it a few days rather than one. Kew Gardens and the Tudor palace at Hampton Court are both a short ride to the west, Richmond and its deer park and riverside are next door, and the Championships fall in the thick of the English summer season, alongside the Henley regatta and Royal Ascot. A long weekend covers the tennis and a corner of the city; a week does it justice.
