The Queen's Club is a private sporting club in Barons Court, West Kensington, London, England. The club hosts the annual Queen's Club Championships grass court

lawn tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

tournament (currently known as the "HSBC Championships" for sponsorship reasons). It has 28 outdoor courts and ten indoor. With two courts, it is also the national headquarters of

real tennis Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of tennis (also called "lawn tennis") is derived. It is also known as court tennis in the United Sta ...

, hosting the British Open every year except in 2020 due to the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The Queen's Club also has rackets and squash courts; it became the headquarters for both sports after the closure of the

Prince's Club The Prince's Club was a socially exclusive gentlemen's multisports club in London, England. The original 'Prince's Club' was founded in 1853 in Chelsea, London, Chelsea by George and James Prince and its main sports were Racquets (sport), racket ...

in 1940.

History

Founded as The Queen's Club Limited on 19 August 1886 by Evan Charteris, George Francis and Algernon Grosvener, the Queen's Club was the world's second multipurpose sports complex, after the

, and became the world's only multipurpose sports complex when the Prince's Club relocated to Knightsbridge and lost its outdoor sports facilities. The club is named after

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

, its first patron. The first lawn tennis courts were opened on 19 May 1887, and the first sporting event was held on 1 and 2 July 1887 when Oxford played Cambridge. The club buildings were opened in January 1888, having taken about 18 months to construct. William Marshall, finalist of the inaugural 1877 Wimbledon Championships was the architect. Among the initial sports offered at the club were

, Eton Fives, rackets, lawn tennis (grass courts and covered courts),

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

, rugby and athletics. Cricket was also played, but not as an organised sport. The University Sports meeting between Cambridge and Oxford was held at the Queen's Club from 1888 to 1928. Queen's Club was the venue of the covered courts (indoor) tennis, ''

jeu de paume ''Jeu de paume'' (, ; originally spelled ; ), nowadays known as real tennis, (US) court tennis or (in France) ''courte paume'', is a ball-and-court game that originated in France. It was an indoor precursor of tennis played without racquets, ...

'' (

) and rackets events of the

1908 Summer Olympics The 1908 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the IV Olympiad and also known as London 1908) were an international multi-sport event held in London, England, from 27 April to 31 October 1908. The 1908 Games were originally schedu ...

. On 7 March 1914 George V attended the Navy v Army rugby match. The army won by four goals and two tries to the navy's three tries. Until 1922, the club was the main ground for the

games of Corinthian F.C. One international was held, between

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

on 18 March 1895, the result being a 1–1 draw.

Sale of Queen's Club

On 13 September 2005, the

Lawn Tennis Association The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is the national governing body of tennis in Great Britain, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man founded in 1888. The LTA promotes all levels of lawn tennis. The organization believes tennis can provide ...

(LTA), the governing body of British lawn tennis, which had owned Queen's since 1953, put the club up for sale. The terms required that the rackets club and the Queen's Club Championships remain unaffected (the site's value for residential or commercial redevelopment might greatly exceed its value as a sports club, in the event that planning permission could be obtained, and the LTA wished to preserve the club's role in British tennis). On 8 March 2006, the LTA announced that it would sell to club members for £45 million, ending seven months of uncertainty about the club's future. However some members disputed the LTA's right to sell the club, which they contested it merely held in trust on their behalf, and began to raise funds to dispute the sale in court. In December 2006, the two sides reached an out-of-court settlement in which the sale price was reduced to £35 million. In February 2007, the LTA relocated its headquarters from Queen's Club to the new National Tennis Centre in

Roehampton Roehampton is an area in southwest London, sharing its SW15 postcode with neighbouring Putney and Kingston Vale, and takes up a far western strip, running north to south, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large counc ...

. The Cinch Championships remains one of the six most popular grass competitions on the men's ATP tour, along with the Halle Open in Germany, the Aegon International in Eastbourne, the

Hall of Fame Open The Hall of Fame Open is an international tennis tournament that has been held every year in July since 1976 at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, the original location of the U.S. Open (tennis), U.S. National Champion ...

in Rhode Island, the Rosmalen Championships in the Netherlands, and

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

. The ball girls are selected from year 8, 9, and 10 pupils at St Philomena's Catholic High School for Girls in South London and Nonsuch High School for Girls in Surrey.

References

External links

*
The Queen's Club

St. Philomena's Catholic High School for Girls website

The Tennis & Rackets Association
{{Olympic venues discontinued events Athletics venues in London Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Corinthian F.C. Defunct football venues in England Fulham Gentlemen's clubs in London History of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Organisations based in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Racquets venues Real tennis venues Sport in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Sports clubs and teams established in 1901 Sports venues completed in 1886 Squash in the United Kingdom Squash venues Tennis venues in London 1886 establishments in England Venues of the 1908 Summer Olympics Olympic tennis venues West Kensington Tennis clubs in the United Kingdom

History

Sale of Queen's Club

See also

References

External links