Wimbledon plan faces dispute over 150-year-old law

A 150‑year‑old law may restrict how land earmarked for the expansion of the Wimbledon tennis site can be used, the High Court has heard.

The All England Club is in a legal battle with campaign group Save Wimbledon Park (SWP) over plans to almost triple the size of its grounds on the former Wimbledon Park Golf Club site.

The proposals include 38 new tennis courts and an 8,000‑seat stadium, allowing the club to host Wimbledon qualifiers on site.

SWP argues that the land is subject to a statutory trust under the Public Health Act 1875, meaning it is only "for the purpose of being used as public walks or pleasure grounds".

The group claims the trust remained in place when the land changed hands in the 1960s and again when the All England Club purchased the freehold in 1993.

Barristers for the All England Club dispute this, insisting the land was never subject to such a trust - and even if it was, it did not survive the 1993 purchase.

However, the club accepts that if a trust existed, it would interfere with its development plans.

In written submissions, Jonathan Karas KC, representing the All England Club, said it would be "anomalous" if the land were found to be held under a statutory trust and that such a finding would mark "a substantive change in the status of the land".

He said: "The golf course land has at all times been treated in practice as private land let to a private club. It was sold to [the All England Club] on that basis.

"It has never been laid out as a public park, nor have the public been permitted to access it for the purposes of public recreation."

Public Wimbledon Park, which was placed under a statutory trust, was created in 1927 by the Wimbledon Corporation.

Karas argued that the golf course remained leased to the golf club throughout this period, and therefore was not part of the public trust.

He said this position continued when the land passed to the London Borough of Merton in the 1960s, and when the All England Club bought the freehold for around £5m in 1993.

Documents from the time "repeatedly asserted that the London Borough of Merton was free to dispose of [the land] as it wished", and that the golf course "was not burdened with a statutory trust", according to Karas.

In earlier proceedings, Sasha White KC, for SWP, argued that the trust meant plans for the land could not "restrict its use so as not to impair the appreciation of the general public of the extent or openness of the golf course land".

In written submissions for Friday's hearing, Caroline Shea KC, also representing SWP, said the golf course "remains an open space" and that the club's position was "flawed".

She said: "The evidence does not support the sort of differential treatment between the two elements of the park that would be required to raise an inference that the golf course land was not appropriated [as public land] and the park was.

"At its highest, all it does is show that different recreational activities were undertaken by different groups over different areas of the park."

The expansion plans were approved by the Greater London Authority in 2024 but have faced sustained scrutiny from campaigners.

This is the second legal challenge brought by SWP, after the group lost a High Court case against the GLA's decision to grant planning permission in July last year.

The hearing is set to finish on 23 January.

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