Skip to main content
Asia

The AELTC Indoor Tennis Centre

Design of a high-quality Members’ facility for The All England Lawn Tennis Club to support The Championships’ operations.

Exterior view of the Tennis Centre at dusk with warm orange lighting

Location

London, United Kingdom

Client

The All England Lawn Tennis Ground PLC

Architect

Hopkins Architects

Located on the opposite side of Somerset Road to the main All England Club Estate, the new facility is key to both the annual celebrations of The Championships and the year-round activities of the Club’s Members. Working in collaboration with Hopkins Architects, Cundall provided structural, civil, and geotechnical engineering to achieve a “Very Good” BREEAM rating.

The scheme involved the demolition of two buildings and in its place a new structure with the provision of six new indoor courts with supporting clubhouse facilities, six external clay courts, a player drop off point, improved operations for The Championships and an energy centre feeding other areas of the Estate and Centre Court.

Structures Partner Barney Jordan comments, “The main feature of the project is the 37m clear-span, double curvature roof over the indoor courts. It was a result of competing demands of restricting the height of the new building to match the demolished dome to satisfy original planning requirements, whilst still ensuring adequate height internally to achieve the minimum playing dimensions for each court.”

Key fact

The roof is formed from seven pairs of 37m long tied steel arches made from fabricated box sections with I-section secondary beams of varying curvature spanning 15m between to achieve a double curved, slender roof profile to fit the playing and planning requirements.

1/2

Key fact

The site features a high-water table with natural groundwater flowing diagonally across the site; requiring a considered drainage strategy to manage this and careful consideration of the buoyancy effects in the substructure design.

2/2

Barney Jordan sitting on arm of sofa with marble background

Barney Jordan

Partner, Structural Engineering

View bio

The very specific requirements of the project resulted in a need for careful co-ordination of geometry between the team and the architects to ensure everything fit together in the limited space available. I am delighted with what we have delivered and immensely proud of my entire team.

Awards

Highly commended

Building Project of the Year over £10m

Constructing Excellence SECBE Awards

Related