The All England Lawn Tennis Club

Billington Structures will be fabricating and supplying the structural steelwork for a new £70m indoor tennis complex at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

Willmott Dixon have been selected by the club as the main contractor and the project will initially require them to demolish existing indoor courts located on Somerset Road, which is adjacent to the main Wimbledon venue. The new complex will include six indoor and six outdoor courts, as well as a single-storey underground car park for members that can accommodate up to 338 vehicles. It will also be used as a transportation hub during the Wimbledon Championships.

This upgrade is part of the All England Lawn Tennis Club’s master plan to ensure that Wimbledon continues to be the most well known stage for world tennis, by offering the best facilities throughout the year. Efforts will be made to ensure that construction of the new complex will have minimal impact on the local community and the environment, which is inline with Willmott Dixon’s being a member of the Considerate Constructors Scheme.

The design of the building’s roof includes a double curved structure to help it blend in with the surrounding landscape and the local area. Billington Structures fabricated and erected the complex steel structure as well as key structural elements, working with Willmott Dixon, Hopkins Architects and Cundall Engineers. The roof included 37-metre-span fabricated arch beams, formed from rectangular hollow sections, which are spaced at 3.2m centres and tied at base level with a steel tie-rod system. Other elements were curved rafters running perpendicular to the arch beams to define the soffit and outer roof geometry. We also delivered a combination of UB profiles and tertiary steelwork to support external metal cladding and internal timber ceiling finishes. Steel framed staircases bracing, and diaphragm elements for lateral stability were also installed.

As well as acrylic and clay courts there will be an underground tunnel that connects the new site to the main estate. The timber clad building also includes heat pumps and solar panels to save energy. The carpet tiles used on the project are also 100% carbon neutral and all entrance mats are made from organic material rather than plastic.

In addition to construction of the new building there will also be extensive outdoor landscaping throughout the grounds, which follows the All England Lawn Tennis Club’s guiding principle of ‘Tennis in an English Garden’.