🎾 The Championships · All England Club, SW19
Wimbledon Around the Grounds — Beyond Centre Court
Most of
Wimbledon is not Centre Court. Twenty-odd courts, a practice complex, a grass hill and a food village run in parallel all day, and a Grounds Pass buys the run of nearly all of it.
Here is what a Grounds Pass actually covers, which parts of the site reward you most, and how to move around a day so you see the most tennis.
Interactive map
Map of the Grounds
The official grounds layout โ ๐ tap any zone for the strategy
Zone info
Tap a zone to start
Every zone on the map is tappable. Select one to see SPL’s strategy for that part of the grounds. Centre Court links straight to the full seating guide.
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The grounds — at a glance
| Area |
Access |
Best for |
When to go |
| No.3 Court & outer courts (4–18) |
Grounds Pass |
Closest match access |
First week |
| Aorangi Terrace (Henman Hill) |
Grounds Pass |
Big-match atmosphere |
Arrive early |
| Aorangi practice courts |
Grounds Pass |
Closest player access |
Early morning |
| Southern Village |
Grounds Pass |
Food, big screen, social |
Before noon or after 2pm |
| No.2 Court |
Separate ticket |
Show-court tennis, smaller scale |
Ballot or resale |
| Centre Court & No.1 Court |
Separate ticket |
The show courts |
See the seating guide |
⚡ What a Grounds Pass actually covers
A Grounds Pass admits you to No.3 Court and Courts 4–18, plus the entire public site — Aorangi Terrace, the practice courts, Southern Village and the big screens. It does not admit you to Centre Court, No.1 Court or No.2 Court; all three are show courts sold separately. Seating on the outer courts is unreserved and first come, first served, and you lose your place if you leave the court. Plan the day around that one rule and most of the rest follows. For the show courts, see the
Centre Court seating guide.
Area by area
No.3 Court & the Outer Courts (4–18)
⭐ The real Wimbledon
This is where the authentic Wimbledon lives, and it is the bulk of what a Grounds Pass actually buys you. The outer courts seat a few hundred to a couple of thousand rather than fifteen thousand, so you sit far closer to the tennis than any Centre Court ticket puts you — often within a few metres of the baseline.
They are strongest in the first week, when the draw is still wide and singles, doubles and juniors run in parallel across the site. You can watch several matches in an afternoon simply by walking between courts. Seating is unreserved and first come, first served, and you give up your place if you leave the court — so pick your moment to move.
💡 The best value at the Championships, and the reason a Grounds Pass is worth having in its own right.
Aorangi Terrace — “Henman Hill”
Best atmosphere
The banked grass slope beside No.1 Court, where crowds without a show-court ticket watch the big matches on the giant screen. The nickname dates from the late 1990s and Tim Henman’s runs; the official name is Aorangi Terrace, and you will see both used on signage and in commentary.
It is the best way to feel a Centre Court occasion without a Centre Court seat — a few thousand people reacting to the same point at the same time. It fills fast on sunny afternoons, when a British player is on, and across the closing weekend.
💡 Arrive early and claim your patch. Once a marquee match starts the good spots are long gone.
The Aorangi Practice Courts
Closest player access
The most underrated part of the grounds. Players warm up on the Aorangi practice courts through the tournament and there is a public viewing area, so you can stand a few metres from a top seed working through a session with a fraction of the crowd a match draws.
Early morning is the moment, before the day’s order of play pulls everyone onto the courts, and again in the window just before a major match when players are warming up.
💡 Often the closest you will get to a top player all day — and it costs nothing extra on a Grounds Pass.
Southern Village
Food & social
The main food and social hub, near Courts 2 and 12, with a big screen, seating and stalls running from Neapolitan pizza and pasta to Pimm’s, wine and beer. The Aorangi food court is the other main cluster, at the north end by the practice courts.
It is one of the busiest public spaces on the site and the lunchtime queues are genuinely long. The food is part of the day, but the timing is the whole game.
💡 Eat before noon or after 2pm — and use the lunchtime lull to take better seats on the outer courts while everyone else is queueing.
No.2 Court
⚠️ Separate ticket — not on a Grounds Pass
Worth being clear about, because it catches people out: No.2 Court is a show court and is not included in a Grounds Pass. It needs its own ticket, the same as Centre Court and No.1 Court.
It is also where a common piece of Wimbledon folklore goes wrong. The “Graveyard of Champions” nickname belongs to the old No.2 Court, which was renumbered as No.3 Court from 2009; today’s No.2 Court is a 4,000-seat arena built on the site of the old Court 13. So the graveyard, if you want to stand in it, is No.3 Court — and that one is on your Grounds Pass.
💡 If you want show-court tennis at a smaller scale than Centre Court, buy No.2 Court deliberately — do not assume you can wander in.
Best around-the-grounds strategy
🎫 If you have a Grounds Pass
Do this
Start at the practice courts before the order of play begins, then work the outer courts through the morning while the show-court crowds are queueing. Move often. Take the lunchtime lull to upgrade your seat on a good outer court, and save Aorangi Terrace for the late-afternoon marquee match, when the screen is the best seat in the grounds.
What not to do: spend three hours holding one seat on one court unless the match genuinely warrants it. Unreserved seating cuts both ways — it costs you a place when you leave, but it also means the whole site is available to you all day.
🎟️ If you have a show-court ticket
Do this
Your seat is reserved; the grounds are not. Come in early and treat the hours before your session as a separate event — practice courts first, then outer courts. Between matches on your own court, go back out rather than sitting through a changeover in an empty arena.
A show-court ticket also admits you to everything a Grounds Pass covers, so you are buying the outer courts whether you use them or not.
⚡ The movement advantage
The big one
The single biggest difference between a first visit and a good one is how much you move. Wimbledon is laid out as a walkable site with matches running simultaneously across twenty-odd courts, and the people who see the most tennis treat it as a roaming event rather than a fixed-seat one.
Moving regularly gets you more matches, better seats as courts empty and fill, fewer queues, and far more of the tournament than any single ticket can show you.
Common mistakes to avoid
Assuming a Grounds Pass gets you into every court. It does not. It covers No.3 Court and Courts 4–18 plus the whole public site — Centre Court, No.1 Court and No.2 Court all need their own tickets. This is the single most common planning mistake, and the one that costs money on the day.
Only focusing on the show courts. You miss most of the tournament. The outer courts put you closer to the tennis than any show-court seat, and on the first week they carry a genuine share of the draw.
Arriving late to Aorangi Terrace. The Hill fills long before the match everyone came for. On a sunny afternoon, with a British player on, or across the final weekend, the good positions are taken hours ahead.
Skipping the practice courts. The closest player access at the entire tournament, free with any ticket, and most visitors never go.
Eating at one o'clock. Southern Village at peak lunch is the longest queue on the site. Shift an hour either way and you get your time back — and better seats while everyone else waits.
Turning up with the wrong bag. Bag rules are strict and enforced at the gate, and a day built around moving between courts is a bad day to be sent back to a locker. Check the
Wimbledon bag policy before you travel.
Frequently asked questions
Which courts does a Wimbledon Grounds Pass get you into?
No.3 Court and Courts 4–18, plus the whole public site — Aorangi Terrace, the practice courts, Southern Village and the food and retail areas. It does not include Centre Court, No.1 Court or No.2 Court, each of which needs its own ticket.
Is Wimbledon worth attending without a Centre Court ticket?
Yes, and plenty of regulars prefer it. A Grounds Pass puts you closer to the tennis than a Centre Court seat does, gives you the run of the site all day, and lets you follow whatever is most interesting rather than whatever is on one court.
What is the best area of the Wimbledon grounds?
The outer courts for proximity, Aorangi Terrace for atmosphere. The outer courts get you within metres of a match; the Hill gets you the shared reaction to a Centre Court point. Most good days use both.
Are the practice courts worth visiting at Wimbledon?
They are the most underrated thing on the site. The Aorangi practice courts have a public viewing area and often give the closest player access of the whole tournament, with a fraction of the crowd. Go early morning, or just before a major match.
Which court is the “Graveyard of Champions”?
Today it is No.3 Court. The nickname attached to the old No.2 Court, which was renumbered No.3 from the 2009 Championships; the current No.2 Court is a newer 4,000-seat arena on the site of the old Court 13. Usefully, No.3 Court is included in a Grounds Pass.
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