Page 518 - The Secret Museum
P. 518

ON  THE  DAY  I VISITED, the club had just hosted the  Olympics and was filled with

          workmen  taking  down  the  London  2012  multi-coloured  signs  and  reinstating  the
          traditional purple and green colours of Wimbledon. The museum itself was closed,
          but Honor Godfrey, curator of the museum took me behind the scenes. In the club’s
          museum  stores  are  about  450  plans  drawn  up  by  architect  Stanley  Peach,  who
          designed Centre Court, which opened in 1922.

              Only two of the plans have been framed. The most striking is one from April
          1921, which has been drawn in ink and coloured with watercolour paint. This is the
          plan for the creation of Centre Court, its focus that small patch of grass on which

          dreams come true, hopes are dashed and history is made.

              The plan shows the whole of Centre Court: the court in the middle is drawn in ink;
          the seating areas are painted in blue and brown. The court, seats and all, is in the
          shape of a dodecagon – that’s with 12 equal sides – with entrances to the stands from
          five halls around it.

              On the plan, to the east of the court is the tea lawn terrace, which runs the length of
          the court (again including the seats) and, beyond that, the tea lawn itself. ‘Taking tea
          was a major thing at Wimbledon,’ said Honor, as she showed me the plan. ‘What
          about strawberries?’ I asked. ‘Did they have those here in the twenties?’ ‘Oh yes,’

          she replied. ‘Strawberries have always been here at Wimbledon.’ Stanley Peach
          made sure that there would be enough room – about 46 by 17 metres – in the Centre
          Court tea room for all to enjoy the drink Britain would be lost without.

              To the west of the court are three further courts, painted in brown. They were not
          built in the end because, two years later, in 1924, No. 1 Court opened on that site. ‘I
          particularly like this,’ said Honor, pointing to the turning circle for the grass roller.
          We looked really closely at the plan to make out the words written on the
          lawnmower’s path: ‘Roller Access Road’ and, beneath that, it says ‘1 in 8 gradient’.

          Stanley Peach signed the plan and was involved at every stage of the process; he was
          skilful and meticulous, paying great attention to even the smallest of details.

              Peach was described by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) as having
          a ‘quiet clear voice’, a ‘sense of humour’ and a ‘wide knowledge of humanity’. He’d
          trained as a doctor and worked as a surveyor in the Rockies before joining an
          architect’s practice at the age of 24. As well as Wimbledon, he worked on
          conserving St Paul’s Cathedral and was part of a group that first brought electricity to
          homes in Westminster.

              One of the things in his mind when he was working on the plans for Centre Court
          was to make sure that the players had the best light conditions possible throughout the

          day. He designed the court so that no shadow would fall on it until after 7 p.m.
          Another was the crowd: he put a small piece of white paper, about the size of a one-
          pence piece, on to the court, and made sure it could be seen from every seat in the
          stand. Only about a hundred seats had a view partially restricted by columns.
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