The Queen's Club is a private sporting club in

West Kensington West Kensington, formerly North End, is an area in the ancient parish of Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, England, 3.4 miles (5.5 km) west of Charing Cross. It covers most of the London postal area of W14, includ ...

, London, England. The club hosts the annual

Queen's Club Championships The Queen's Club Championships is an annual tournament for male tennis players, held on grass courts at the Queen's Club in West Kensington, London. The event is part of the ATP Tour 500 series on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...

men's

grass court A grass court is one of the four different types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis, originally known as "lawn tennis", is played. Grass courts are made of grasses in different compositions depending on the tournament. Although grass c ...

lawn tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cove ...

tournament (currently known as the "cinch Championships" for sponsorship reasons). It has 28 outdoor courts and ten indoor. With two courts, it is also the national headquarters of real tennis, hosting the British Open every year excepting 2020 due to the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...

. The Queen's Club also has

rackets Racket may refer to: * Racket (crime), a systematised element of organized crime ** Protection racket, a scheme whereby a group provides protection to businesses or other groups through violence outside the sanction of the law * Racket (sports equ ...

and

squash Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...

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 by George and James Prince and its main sports were rackets and real tennis. Cricket, croque ...

in 1940.

History

Founded as The Queen's Club Limited on 19 August 1886 by

Evan Charteris The Hon. Sir Evan Edward Charteris (29 January 1864 – 16 November 1940, Jesmond Hill, Pangbourne) was an English biographer, barrister and arts administrator. He published notable biographies of his friend John Singer Sargent and of Edmund Gosse ...

, 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 her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

, 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 The 1877 Wimbledon Championship was a men's tennis tournament held at the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club (AEC & LTC) in Wimbledon, London. It was the world's first official lawn tennis tournament, and was later recognised as the fir ...

was the architect. Among the initial sports offered at the club were real tennis,

Eton Fives Eton fives, a derivative of the British game of fives, is a handball game, similar to Rugby fives, played as doubles in a three-sided court. The object is to force the other team to fail to hit the ball 'up' off the front wall, using any varie ...

, lawn tennis (grass courts and covered courts), football,

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

and

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

. 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, a ...

'' ( real tennis) and

events of the 1908 Summer Olympics. 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 football games of

Corinthian F.C. Corinthian Football Club was an English amateur football club based in London between 1882 and 1939. Above all, the club is credited with having popularised football around the world, having promoted sportsmanship and fair play, and having ch ...

One international was held, between

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

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. It believes that tennis can provide "physica ...

(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 Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building * Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction *Settlement (fin ...

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, in the Putney SW15 postal district, and takes up a far western strip running north to south of the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large council house estates and is home to the U ...

. The Fever-Tree Championships remains one of the six most popular grass competitions on the men's ATP tour, along with the

Halle Open The Halle Open is a men's tennis tournament held in Halle, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Held since 1993, the event is played on four outdoor grass courts and is a part of the ATP Tour 500 series on the ATP Tour schedule. Between 1993 and 2018 ...

in Germany, the Aegon International in Eastbourne, the

Hall of Fame Open The Infosys 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. National Championships. The ...

in Rhode Island, the Rosmalen Championships in the Netherlands, and Wimbledon. 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 Hammersmith and Fulham Sports clubs 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 West Kensington Tennis clubs

History

Sale of Queen's Club

See also

References

External links