Workers Wimbledon. 1932-1951
Wimbledon in 2026 may seem rather less than a festival of proletarian sport particularly with the BBC’s fascination of who is to be found sitting in the Royal Box.
That is perhaps unfair because while the wealthy and famous are seen there, they are also present at many other sporting events, most of which take place more frequently, and hence have less focus.
Even so tennis does have a reputation as a rather middle-class sport, Andy Murray’s pandemic call for a decent pay rise for NHS workers notwithstanding.
Verso published a book in 2020 which both challenged and to a degree confirmed that perspective. David Berry’s A People’s History of tennis is well worth a read
In 2020 Prospect magazine published an article by Berry on one part of the book, that which covers Workers Wimbledon, an alternative to the All England Championships that ran from 1932 to 1951, the war years aside.
By the late 1930s Berry notes:
Workers’ Wimbledon had become the pinnacle of an alternative tennis culture in Britain that encompassed Labour Party tennis clubs, miners’, postal workers’ and railwaymen’s tennis associations and public park leagues. Together they challenged the private tennis club code of exclusion and discrimination.
It was part of a wider socialist culture, involving travel clubs and other sports. By 1960s the rise of the consumer society, saw its decline. That’s no reason why it couldn’t be revived in a modern format however
I wont repeat the points Berry makes which are below (paywalled but register to read for free):
Kmflett's Blog 
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