Putney News: Giant ears at dawn: the protest AELTC is trying not to hear

Residents brought giant ears to Wimbledon Park on Championships opening morning

Putney News | 30 June 2026 | Kieren McCarthy

Local residents turned up in Wimbledon Park at dawn this morning wearing giant ears, launching a protest on the opening day of the Championships against a tennis club that, they say, refuses to listen.

Around 5,000 people were already in the park sleeping in their bags, waiting for the queue to move. Twenty to thirty of them walked over.

The All England Club has planning permission to develop the park. It formally rejected a residents' compromise plan two weeks ago, with club chair Debbie Jevans saying it 'simply doesn't work' and ruling out further talks.

This morning's protest was Save Wimbledon Park's response: ear props, chants (No stadium in our park; You cannot be serious; a McEnroe reference; Green not greed; Love tennis, hate concrete; Broken promises), and Simon Wright, one of the campaign's directors, doing interviews on the grass while Wimbledon's opening day got underway around him.

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