Cats. 1,200 seats destroyed by Wimbledon Center Court bombing
The All-England Lawn Tennis Club was founded in 1868 and its original site was Worple Road in the borough of Wimbledon. The first tennis championship was held there in 1877, but as the event grew in popularity, the club was forced to move to a larger venue in 1922. That year, the championship was held on Church Road for the first time. Although this first edition was marred by rain, the tournament continues to be held at the same venue even today.
The main court in the new area was the legendary Center Court, which opened with 14,000 spectators. Gerald Patterson was the first player to win after reading Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem engraved above its entrance (“If you can meet triumph and disaster / And do the same with those two crooks”).
The last player to win Wimbledon before World War II It was Bobby Riggs in 1939. War broke out less than two months later, in September 1939. After the German defeat of Poland and France, they turned against the United Kingdom in the late summer of 1940. After the Royal Air Force won the Battle of Britain, the Nazis launched a famous bombing campaign, which the British press called “The Blitz” (German for “lightning”), which began on September 7. From that day on, London was systematically bombed by the Luftwaffe for 56 of the next 57 days and nights.
In those days, the All England Club changed its goals. John Barrett, author Wimbledon. Official history “One of the parking lots was plowed to grow vegetables. Another has housed pigs, chickens, ducks, geese and rabbits in temporary log houses, while the main gathering echoes the footsteps of squads from the London Welsh and London Irish Regiments.’ Some of the buildings were even used by fire, ambulance and first aid services.
Unfortunately, on October 11th, the war hit the All England Club in a more brutal way. The Wimbledon neighborhood was often subject to German raids as it housed two factories that were important to the war effort. That night the Club, which had been spared until now, was unlucky as five bombs hit the property. Two fell on the Wimbledon Park golf course, one landed on Church Road near the northeast entrance, one destroyed the club’s tool house and one landed on Center Court. The roof of the central court was torn off and 1,200 seats were completely destroyed by the explosion.
Courts continued to be held at the All-England Club throughout the war. It was in June 1945, barely a month after the end of the Second World War, that a tournament involving players from the armed services was held, attracting no fewer than 5,000 spectators. The actual championship did not resume until 1946, when Center Court was completely renovated, and the first post-war champion was Frenchman Yvonne Petra. The club board faced other challenges in running such an event during this time, mainly due to rationalization.
In 1979, Center Court underwent renovations to add 1,000 seats, but the biggest transformation took place in the 2000s when a retractable roof was built. Unveiled in April 2009, it ended Wimbledon’s notorious rain delay. There are more changes to come as plans to expand Wimbledon have been confirmed in 2024, allowing the qualifying event to be held at the venue as well.