The Edgbaston Lawn Tennis 🎾 Trail

BIRMINGHAM THE HOME OF LAWN TENNIS: THE BIRMINGHAM LAWN TENNIS TRAIL

Birmingham is the ‘Home of Lawn Tennis’ with the first game of Lawn Tennis being played at 8 Ampton Road in Edgbaston in 1859 by Major Harry Gem, Clerk to Birmingham Magistrates his friend Spanish Merchant Augurio Perera. They both played rackets at the Bath Street Rackets Club.

Gem and Perera wanted to play a rackets game outdoors and marked out a court on the lawn at Perera’s home ‘Fairlight’ at 8 Ampton Road in Edgbaston.

Their first experiments date back to 1859. The dimensions of a modern lawn tennis court are similar to those of the back garden at 8 Ampton Road which would be our first stopping off point on the ‘Birmingham Tennis Trail’.

The next place of interest on the Birmingham Tennis Trail would be in Sir Harry’s Road (named after Major Harry Gem) and the Edgbaston Priory Tennis Club.

In honour of another hugely significant Birmingham Tennis figure the Centre
Court at Edgbaston Priory is named after the 1969 Wimbledon Ladies Singles
Champion Ann Jones, who used to live in Edgbaston after a lifetime of service
to the game of tennis, firstly as a County player with Warwickshire and later
as a British Wimbledon Champion and latterly as an official with the
Women’s Tennis Association.

The Birmingham Tennis Trail then moves to Edgbaston Archery and Lawn Tennis Society (E.A.L.T.S.) in Westbourne Road, next to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, the oldest Lawn Tennis Club in the world. The Society’s six grass courts occupy the same piece of ground where the originals were laid down in the early 1870s. Therefore this patch of land holds the distinction of being the oldest lawn tennis playing surface still in regular use anywhere in the world.

The Edgbaston Oratory, in Hagley Road was at one time home to the first Olympic Tennis Champion John Pius Boland.

The son of a Dublin baker, John Pius Boland attended The Oratory School in Birmingham where he played cricket and had tennis coaching with Father Pereira, an Oratorian priest who also played cricket for Warwickshire. His adoptive parents taught him to play tennis. Boland attended Christ Church College, Oxford and in 1894 invited a Greek acquaintance, Konstantinos Manos, to speak at the Oxford Union on the revival of the Modern Olympic Games. Boland and Manos became close friends and Boland was invited to spend the Easter holidays of 1896 in Athens.

It appears that John Boland had no intention of competing in the Olympic Games, his host, who was a member of the Organizing Committee, prevailed upon the 26-year-old Irishman to enter the Olympic Lawn Tennis tournament.

Boland won two Olympic gold medals. He took the singles title by beating Dionysios Kasdaglis of Egypt in three sets and then joined Friedrich Traun of Germany to win the men’s doubles.

Andy Murray was not the first Olympic Tennis Champion from these islands!

Another religious tennis link to Birmingham is that Bishop of Birmingham, Alfred Gore, whose statue stands in Birmingham’s St Philip’s Cathedral grounds, was the brother of the very first Wimbledon Men’s Singles Champion from 1872: Spencer Gore.

And finally the Birmingham Tennis trail takes us to the University of Birmingham Tennis Courts halls of residence on Edgbaston Park Road. It was here that the Edgbaston Lawn Tennis Club was located until the mid 1960s, when it amalgamated with Priory Lawn Tennis Club to become the Edgbaston Priory Club at Sir Harry’s Road. The university kept the shale cpurts for a while and it was on one of these that photographer Martin Elliott shot the photograph which became the iconic 1970’s Athena poster: ‘The Tennis Girl’.

OTHER PLACES OF INTEREST

Bath Street – site of the Bath Street Rackets Club and St Chads Cathedral where Perera’s children were baptized.

Great Charles Street – Perera’s business was on tihs street. It was also the location for Gem’s feat of memory wager.

Moor Street – it is understood that the Police Courts were on this street and may have been the location of Gem’s office while he was Clerk to the Magistrates (as his father was before him).

Aston Church – Gem’s father is buried here. Grave location unknown.

Warstone Lane Cemetery – Gem buried here.

Waterloo Street – Gem’s uncle’s lw firm Gem & Co were based here.

Thorp Street – Birmingham Rifles Barracks. Gem rose to Major.

University of Birmingham – it was here that The Birmingham Rifles would come for shooting practice at the butts on the land running down to the Bristol Road. They would often travel most of the way from Thorp Street by canal so as not to put undue strain on their shoulders and arms prior to shooting.

Moseley Road/Trafalgar Road – Gem’s home Trafalgar Cottage was here.

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