Wimbledon, United Kingdom

Wimbledon, United Kingdom

Wimbledon United Kingdom

Wimbledon is a district and town in southwest London, about 7 miles (11 km) from the city centre at Charing Cross, within the London Borough of Merton. In 2011 it had a population of 68,187, covering the electoral wards of Abbey, Dundonald, Hillside, Trinity, Village, Raynes Park and Wimbledon Park. It is best known as the home of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and the New Wimbledon Theatre, and it includes Wimbledon Common, one of the largest areas of common land in London. The residential and shopping area is broadly divided into the “village” and the “town”: the High Street follows the line of the original medieval village, while the “town” grew up gradually after the railway station was built in 1838. People have lived in Wimbledon since at least the Iron Age, when the hill fort on Wimbledon Common is thought to have been constructed. At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, Wimbledon formed part of the manor of Mortlake. Over the centuries, the manor of Wimbledon passed between a number of wealthy families, and the wider area attracted other affluent residents who built substantial houses such as Eagle House, Wimbledon Manor House and Warren House. The village developed with a stable rural population living alongside nobility and wealthy city merchants. In the 18th century, the Dog and Fox pub became a staging post on the coach route from London to Portsmouth. Then, in 1838, the London and South Western Railway opened a station to the southeast of the village at the foot of Wimbledon Hill, shifting the focus of the town’s growth away from the original village centre. Wimbledon once had its own borough while it was still in the county of Surrey; it was incorporated into the London Borough of Merton with the creation of Greater London in 1965. Today, Wimbledon has several established minority communities, notably British Asians (including British Sri Lankans), British Ghanaians, Polish and Irish residents. A small farming settlement in New Zealand named Wimbledon took its name from the London district in the 1880s, after a local resident is said to have shot a bullock from an impressive distance, a feat onlookers compared to the rifle-shooting championships then held in Wimbledon.
Recommended airport
London (LON)
Nearby destinations
  • London a 9.20 km
  • Windsor a 28.88 km
  • LEGOLAND® Windsor a 30.99 km