Wimbledon Park – A Threatened Beauty

In a guest blog for CPRE London, the Save Wimbledon Park campaign outline the history of Wimbledon Park from the sixteenth century to present day threats to build on this precious green space.

Wimbledon, though only ten miles from central London, used to be a quiet country village in Surrey.  From the mid-sixteenth century onwards, four great Manor Houses were built.  They were each on slightly different sites on top of the hill from where attractive views could be obtained.  Apart from a few stretches of old wall and a hidden tunnel, nothing remains of any of them.

The third of these houses was built by Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough.  In 1748, the estate was inherited by the 11-year old John Spencer, and by the time he took possession of it aged 18, the parklands comprises some 1200 acres.  In 1765, Spencer commissioned Launcelot “Capability” Brown to landscape the grounds.  Brown transformed the park, creating a winding drive from the Portsmouth Road, now better known as the A3 at Tibbet’s Corner, plus informal clumps of trees and a 30-acre lake.  The effect was so impressive that one newspaper reported: “The ground around Lord Spencer’s place at Wimbledon is perhaps as beautiful as anything near London”. (Milward1989)

But by the 1820s, the Spencer family stopped coming to Wimbledon.  The house and park were leased and eventually sold to John Augustus Beaumont, a property developer.  At first, development was slow but by the end of the nineteenth century the estate had been broken up with the majority of the parkland built on.

In 1915 the former Wimbledon Corporation acquired what remained of the Wimbledon Park Estate. A Golf Club had already been established on part of the land and this continued under a succession of leases. In 1965, Wimbledon was merged into the London Borough of Merton and the Golf Club continued to lease their land from them. The entire Wimbledon Park Estate, including a public park, the lake and the golf course, was legally designated as public open space, held in trust by Merton for the people of Wimbledon.

By 1993 Merton Council decided that they had no need to retain the freehold of the Golf Club land and put it up for sale.  Despite local opposition, it was bought by  the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), whose existing site bordered the Golf Club across Church Road. To assuage public suspicion of the AELTC’s future intentions, there were clear public assurances by both parties, backed by formal legal covenants, that the golf course lands would remain open and not be built on, and to dedicate a public walkway around the perimeter of the Lake if ever golf ceased to be played.

In 2018 the AELTC bought the leasehold interest in the land from the golf club members, so that they then owned both the freehold and the leasehold.  Then in 2021, and despite their 1993 promises, the AELTC submitted a planning application proposing to expand its operations onto the golf course lands, with a new 8000 seater and 28m high stadium, 38 open courts, and 10 maintenance depots, player facilities and other structures with 9 kilometres of roads and paths.

Golf ceased to be played at the end of 2022.  But no lakeside walk has been created as required by the 1993 covenant, apparently on the grounds that the lease still exists because the AELTC has chosen not to merge the freehold and leasehold interests.  Their plans do not now envisage a lakeside walk: instead they plan a boardwalk in the lake.  AELTC has also offered to de-silt the lake, actually a Merton Council responsibility as they still own it.

The impact of the proposed intensive management of grass courts risks pesticide, nutrient and herbicide pollution affecting the parkland grasslands and water quality in the lake.  It is a ‘Priority Habitat’ for water birds and fish, including declining species such as European Eel and Pochard. Lake water quality will be endangered by pollutants from the development, whilst the proposed new reed beds are too small and in the wrong place to treat pollutants.  The de-silting proposals will release pollutants locked in the lake sediment, endangering vital ecosystem and those that depend on it.

On the former golf course itself, the felling of between 300 and 1300 trees would occur as a consequence of the AELTC’s proposal. Felling so many trees will release well over 800,000 kg of carbon dioxide, which is a huge and immediate loss of sequestered carbon. At best, the loss will not be redressed for 40 years.

Trees provide shelter, food and nesting sites for protected species: Nuthatch, Tawny Owl, Stock Dove, Kestrel and eight species of bat. The old trees also support a number of rare invertebrates and fungi. The tree work, alongside the bulldozing of virtually the whole of the former golf course land, will result in a net loss of biodiversity, despite claims otherwise by AELTC. The developer’s claimed 23% Biodiversity Net Gain is, in fact, a 36% Biodiversity Net Loss, which fails to meet the London Plan Guidance.  Worse still, Planning policy also requires that applications should be refused if they will cause significant harm to biodiversity, or the loss of Irreplaceable Habitats which, experts have determined is the correct classification of the whole parkland.

AELTC’s plans envisage a timescale of at least 8 years to complete their project.  If permission is granted, this would create an estimated 9,000 off-site HGV movements for earthworks alone, plus 1000s more for silt. Up to 54 vehicles per day (27 arrivals and departures) would need to use suburban and sometimes narrow routes for extended periods, estimated to be 40,400 Lorry movements (26,800 HGVs and 13,600 LGVs) over 8 years.

The AELTC have said they are donating part of the Golf Course for use as a public ‘permissive’ park. But the AELTC would retain ownership and could close it; “permissive” means it can be withdrawn at any time.  AELTC stated that the ‘park’ will be 23 acres (9.4 hectares), but this includes the nature reserve with no public access. They have filed a amended plan with the GLA which marginally increases the park but still leaves ownership in their hands.  The planning obligation they are offering could be overturned after just 5 years.

The “Save Wimbledon Park” campaign started in 2021 to oppose these damaging proposals.  Our petition has over 19,000 signatures.  Our website has more information, including maps showing the extent of the site.

Sources:

Milward, R (1989) Chapter 8 Wimbledon Park  in “Historic Wimbledon: Ceaser’s Camp to Centre Court”  Windrush Press

https://www.savewimbledonpark.org/