Description

ROYAL LEAMINGTON SPA

SP3165NE BEDFORD STREET
1208-1/7/44 (West side)
25/03/70 No.50
Leamington Real Tennis Club

GV II*

Tennis and billiard club. Real tennis court of 1846 with club
house of 1847 and alterations of 1854. Architect: John George
Jackson of Newbold Lodge, Leamington. Pinkish-brown brick in
English Garden Wall bond with painted stucco front facade,
unpainted stucco to right extension and Welsh slate roof.
PLAN: (original): off-centre hall with smoking room to right
and reading room to left, billiard room to rear right and real
tennis court to rear left.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, 9 first-floor windows, those three to
right are set back. Plinth to right. Extension to right of 2
storeys, 1 blind window and further single-storey extension.
Entrance beneath 7th window a 6-panel door with rusticated
surround and with Doric porch of paired engaged pilasters,
frieze, metopes, dentil cornice. Six 6/6 sashes some with
original etched glass, in plain reveals and with sills and
tooled architraves with frieze and cornice.
To right are two 3/6 sashes with sills, in tooled surrounds,
continuous frieze and cornice.
First floor: 1/1 sashes with sills, in tooled surrounds
throughout, continuous sill band to three right windows.
Frieze, cornice, moulded above 3 right windows and with
blocking course. Ridge and end stacks.
INTERIOR: dining room to rear, the former billiard room, has
apse to end with marble fireplace, dado rail, moulded cornice,
peep-holes to doors. Tennis court through two storeys has
balustrade to front and left side with turned posts; large
tripartite window has three 12-pane lights to first floor.
4-panel doors. Openwell staircase has cast-iron balustrade
with paterae motif and wreathed handrail. Hall has
Coalbrookdale tile floor. Reading rooms to front. Dr Jephson
and Lord Brooke were among the committee members who promoted
the Tennis Court. Approx. »2,000 was raised by shares.
HISTORICAL NOTE: this is the oldest public gentleman's tennis
club, the first game was played on 29 December 1847. Jackson
was sent by the Committee to inspect the tennis court in the
Haymarket, London, before proceeding. Bedford Street was laid
out by 1810, first called Frost Street, its present name was
adopted before 1834.
(Noel EB and Clark JOM: A History of Tennis: London: 1924-;

Tennis Club Committee Minutes: 1844-1848).

Listing NGR: SP3169365829

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17552547

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)