Real Tennis Club, Royal Leamington Spa
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Real Tennis Club, Royal Leamington Spa by David Stowell as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Real Tennis Club, Royal Leamington Spa
Image: © David Stowell Taken: 9 Jul 2005
This fairly inconspicuous building on Bedford Street is the home of one of the few Real Tennis Clubs in the country. "Real" (probably a corruption of Royal) Tennis can be traced back to medieval times and is a very ancient game bearing little resemblance to the modern game of Lawn Tennis. Although equipped with a central net, the court is asymmetric with irregular sides said to resemble the shape of the side of a castle alongside which it was originally played. The Leamington Real Tennis Club was founded by the local nobility and opened on 29th December 1846. This was some 26 years before Major Harry Gem founded the first Lawn Tennis Club in the world at the Manor House Hotel within the same Grid Square! The court is indoors with the only external signs being the high windows at the rear of the building to provide light for the court. This is still a private club however it has hosted a number of major events including the world tournament. http://www.leamingtonrealtennis.co.uk/
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
52.289426
Longitude
-1.536672