Putney News: Two days of argument, three judges, no date: Wimbledon Park waits
City Hall approved the scheme while assuming the land was held on a public trust. Was that lawful?
Putney News | 9 October 2026 | Kieren McCarthy
Three Court of Appeal judges will decide whether the Mayor of London was right to approve a tennis tournament expansion onto Wimbledon Park while knowing the law might forbid it because of legal protections on the land itself. They reserved judgment on Thursday after two days of argument, and set no date for a ruling.
The expansion belongs to the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), the private members' club that runs the famous Wimbledon tournament. City Hall's officers assessed its proposal as if the land were held on a public trust, a duty to keep it open to the public, then recommended approval anyway. Save Wimbledon Park, the campaign group appealing, says that made the decision irrational.
The permission covers an 8,000-seat show court and 38 grass tennis courts on the former golf course across Church Road from the Championships. The land is Metropolitan Open Land, protected like Green Belt, and part of a registered park landscaped by the famed landscape designer Capability Brown. Its Grade II* rating is the second-highest of the three grades on the national register.
