Wimbledon Village,
A quick history

The name Wimbledon means ‘Wynnman’s hill’.  The current spelling appears to have been settled on relatively recently in the early 19th century, the last in a long line of variations.  Wimbledon village or ‘The Village’ as it is referred to by the locals, is the area above Wimbledon town centre located at the top of Wimbledon Hill

Wimbledon has been inhabited since at least the Iron Age, when a hill fort know as ‘Caesars Camp’ covered some seven acres on the south-west side of the common.  Before its eventual destruction in 1870 the ramparts were 10 – 20 feet high, with the moat averaging some 12 feet deep.



In the Doomsday Book, Wimbledon was shown as part of the manor of Mortlake, which was owned by the Archbishops of Canterbury.  The manor was held until 1398 when the then Archbishop, Thomas Arundel, fell out of favour and was exiled by Richard II.  The manor then became crown property.

The manor changed hands numerous times until in 1588 the manor was sold to Sir Thomas Cecil, Earl of Exeter, who went about transforming the village from a relative backwater into one of the social centres of Elizabethan & Stuart England.  Sir Thomas achieved this by building a grand manor house with gardens all laid out in the formal Elizabethan style.  Both Queen Elizabeth I and James I & VI were entertained here on several occasions.

The effect the Manor house had on the village was enormous, not only did it provide jobs for the locals who were required to provision and repair the house or were needed as servants or gardeners, but it soon attracted other weathly families who realised that Wimbledon was just a short horse ride from the city yet remained very much an ideal country retreat.  Three leading families moved there, the Cecils, the Churchills and the Spencers.  In 1613 Robert Bell, Master of the Worshipful Company of Girdlers and a director of the British East India Company built Eagle Home.

The 17th and 18th Centuries again saw the manor change hands on numerous occasions.  The village continued to grow and the introduction of stagecoach services from the Dog and Fox to the City centre made the journey routine (although there was always the risk of being held-up by highwaymen such as Jerry Abershawe!).

The next major development in Wimbledon was the coming of the railway in 1838 which lead to a rapid expansion.  Victorian professional classes bought or built large houses with accompanying gardens.  To maintain all these households and grounds, more servants, gardeners and shopkeepers were required and in the 1850’s street after street of terraced houses were built to accommodate them all. 

The commercial and civic development of the town also accelerated during this period.  Ely’s department store (located at the bottom of the Hill) opened in 1876.  Wimbledon got its first police station in 1870, a Literary Institue by the early 1860’s and Wimbledon Library in 1887.  The second half of the centuray saw the construction of St Mary’s Church, Christ Church and Trinity Church.  It was also about this time (1877 to be precise) that a little event called The Championship, Wimbledon was first played, although the only draw on the card was the men’s singles.

The growth from village to town was recognished in 1894 when it formed the Wimbledon Urban District with an elected council.

The town was now of a size where growth; of business, shops and of housing took place naturally, becoming what is modern day Wimbledon and ‘The Village’.