Where to Play Tennis in London as a Visitor
London looks like the easiest tennis city in the world until you try to book something. Sport England's facility database records 985 tennis sites and 4,295 courts across Greater London and the commuter belt around it - more courts than New York and Toronto combined. The problem is access: only a small minority are places a visitor can simply turn up and play. Here is how the city actually splits, and how to find the ones that will have you.
The access problem, in numbers
This is the thing to understand before anything else. London's 4,295 courts break down roughly like this:
- 103 sites, about 295 courts - free public access. Turn up and play.
- Around 290 further sites - pay and play. Open to anyone, booked and paid by the hour.
- The remaining 590 or so sites - registered membership, sports clubs, schools and private grounds. Not realistically available to a visitor without an invitation or a day rate.
Why that matters for planning
The practical consequence is that a map of London tennis courts is close to useless on its own. Six courts half a mile from your hotel may all belong to a members club with a waiting list.
Sort by access before you sort by distance. A free court twenty minutes away beats a members-only court you can see from the window.
Where the free courts are
Free public courts cluster in borough parks rather than in the centre. Burgess Park in Southwark is the standout inner-London option with seven courts, six of them floodlit. Queen's Park in Brent, Cottenham Park in Merton and Rosedale Park in Hillingdon each have six.
Further out, Cassiobury Park in Watford is the largest free site in the dataset at ten courts, and one of only three free sites in the region with any grass at all.
None of these are secret, and on a warm weekend they are busy. The usual etiquette applies: an hour, or a set, then off.
Surfaces: it is macadam, almost everywhere
Two-thirds of London's tennis sites are macadam - the dark, slightly porous asphalt that British parks have used for decades. It plays low and fast when dry and gets genuinely slick when wet, which is worth knowing in a city where it rains.
Artificial grass is the next most common and behaves nothing like real grass: it is sand-filled, slower than it looks, and tends to be the surface that stays playable after rain.
Real grass exists at 51 sites and is overwhelmingly private. Clay, in its various British forms including shale, is similarly concentrated in clubs.
Floodlights make London easy
Nearly 400 London sites are floodlit, which is a far higher proportion than most big cities manage. If you are in town on business and can only play after six, London is one of the few places where that is a normal thing to want.
Booked floodlit slots go first, so if an evening game matters, book it a few days out rather than the morning of.
Finding one from where you are staying
The court finder has all 985 of these sites loaded from the Sport England records, each marked with whether it is free, pay-and-play or members-only, along with its surface, court count and floodlights. Filter by access first and the city gets much simpler.
Frequently asked questions
Are there free tennis courts in London?+
Yes, but fewer than the headline number suggests. Of 985 recorded tennis sites, 103 are free public access - about 295 courts. A further few hundred are pay-and-play, where anyone can book but you pay by the hour. The rest are clubs, schools and private grounds.
How does pay-and-play tennis work in London?+
Most borough park courts are run on behalf of the council by an operator, and you book a slot online or through an app, usually paying by the hour. Prices vary by borough and time of day. The practical point for a visitor is that you book before you travel, not when you arrive.
Can I play on grass courts in London?+
There are 51 sites with grass in the London area, but almost all are private clubs. Only three of them are recorded as free public access. If grass is the goal, you are looking at a club day rate or a guest invitation, and a short summer season.
What surface will I actually be playing on in London?+
Macadam, overwhelmingly - it is recorded at 666 of the 985 sites. Concrete is next at 129, then artificial grass at 140. Clay and grass together account for well under a fifth of sites and are concentrated in private clubs.
Can you play tennis in London in the evening?+
Yes, and far more easily than in most cities - 391 of the 985 sites have floodlights. Evening tennis is normal here in a way it is not in, say, New York.
Search London's courts by access, surface and distance - and see which ones you can actually walk onto.
Open the Court Finder →