I am considering a "day" trip to Wimbledon during my London visit. Will not be there during the actual tournament. Should I consider booking a tour or can it be done on one's own? Not a huge tennis fan, but definitely respect the history of the place. Being based in London, what is the best way to get there. How much time should one typically allow? What are other nearby places to check out while I am in the area.....if time allows? TIA.
Posted by
Chicago
1247 posts
The All England Club is in kind of a leafy suburban part of London, so there is not
that much else to check out in the immediate vicinity.
As for tours:
Museum and Tours
You would not want to get a car just to drive there, so use the Transport for London
planner to figure out your best route, based on where you're coming from. Don't
just get on the Tube and go to a stop that has Wimbledon in the title. You'll need
to Tube it and then walk a bit or get on a bus.
Posted by
Preston UK
1811 posts
You need a District line tube towards Wimbledon but get off at Southfields and walk, it’s nearer.
Posted by
Land of La
10072 posts
Book the tour. Very well done. You could also visit the Buddhapdia Temple. We tubed from Richmond and walked to and from the Stadium
for the women’s final in 2022. There was a change of trains at Clapham Junction. If memory serves an hour or so from Richmond The Quadrant to Wimbledon station and then just followed humans to the Stadium. We had reserve tickets and package which included lunch. Trust me the tix were a gift otherwise we couldn’t have afforded them.
I did like the museum and the whole day out!
Posted by
Parker, CO
18 posts
We were in London for 5 days in 2019. Purchased a London Pass for 5 days. This requires a lot of planning and scheduling ahead of time to figure out which places to visit and how to get there. Wimbledon was included at that time, it is not now, but we really enjoyed our visit to Wimbledon. Like you, we’re not huge tennis fans, but did want to see this iconic place and we were glad we did.
We chose to tour Wimbledon the day we arrived in London from the US, stored our luggage, and hopped on a bus from central London. We were sleep deprived and appreciated the bus ride out to Wimbledon, the relaxing tour and walking around. After taking the bus back into town we toured the British Library. By then we were ready to gather our luggage and head to our AirBnB and get a good nights sleep. We used public transportation (trains) our whole time.
We did this on our own, no tour company involved. We took a local bus out to Wimbledon. Do the research to coordinate bus schedule, with tour times, I think we bought our tickets once we got there, but verify if that is wise today. There was not much else to see in that area so we went back into the heart of London afterwards. I think allowing 3 hours for this is sufficient. You’ll want to book a 90 minute tour of Wimbledon and spend some time on your own at the museum. It is really fun to see the places you’ve seen on TV when you watch the tournament. I wouldn’t recommend this in a Top 10 list, but it is unique to London, just depends on how long you’re there and what else you want to see. We saw ”everything” that we wanted to, but it took 5 days.
An additional tip - we rode a Thames River ferry out to Greenwich to stand on the Prime Meridian and see the Royal Observatory.
https://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/visit_and_tickets/museum_tours_faqs.html
Posted by
London
1177 posts
I've been to Wimbledon but only to see a match, so I can't comment on the museum experience. But to answer your other questions:
-How to get there- get the District line (towards Wimbledon) to Southfields and walk from there
-What else is nearby:
-It's on the route of the Capital Ring Walk if you'd like to extend your walk through SW London
-Very close to Wimbledon Common, which is huge, and has a windmill you can visit
-Buddhapadipa Temple, which has been mentioned above- this is a Thai Buddhist temple you can visit. It's small but very beautiful and quite unique in London.
-If you keep going west, you'll get to Richmond Park, which is another, even larger park, full of deer, very nice to visit
-If you keep going east, you'll get to Tooting, which has Tooting Market and is also the area known for Sri Lankan food
-If you keep going south, you'll get to Morden Hall Park, which is a National Trust site- a medium sized very scenic park on a former estate
-North is Wandsworth and Putney- not a lot there for tourists but you might enjoy walking through typical London neighbourhoods