German bombing raid struck Wimbledon's Centre Court in 1940
On October 11, 1940, during the German Blitz on Britain, bombs hit the All England Lawn Tennis Club, the home of Wimbledon. One bomb damaged the Centre Court stand's roof and destroyed 1,200 seats. Full repairs took nine years, but the Wimbledon Championships returned in 1946.
The All England Club began in 1868 at Worple Road and staged its first championships in 1877. Growth pushed it to Church Road in 1922, where Centre Court opened with room for 14,000 spectators. Gerald Patterson became its first champion, with Rudyard Kipling’s lines about triumph and disaster inscribed above the entrance.
Before war halted play, Bobby Riggs won the 1939 title. The club then supported wartime services and even livestock; five bombs struck on October 11, 1940. Play resumed with a services event in 1945, while the official championships returned in 1946, won by Yvon Petra.
The bombing could have deepened public attachment to Wimbledon as a symbol of continuity amid wartime disruption. Local residents, club staff, players, and future spectators may have felt the loss of Centre Court seats as part of broader wartime hardship. Its postwar return in 1946 may have offered a reassuring sign that normal sporting life could resume, though the event’s scale and meaning would remain tied to recovery.