Credit: Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
1888: The story begins…
The Pavilion Tennis Club starts life on the Pavilion Lawns of the Royal Pavilion!
Early 1900’s: a new home on an ex-dump!
The Club acquires an ex Victorian household rubbish site in Wilbury Avenue, Hove, which has been levelled and covered with soil. The Club creates 8 grass tennis courts and later purchases the freehold.
1956: The Pavilion & Avenue Lawn Tennis Club is born
The Avenue Club in The Droveway, Hove (now The Paddock) sells its site and merges with the Pavilion Tennis Club resulting in our unusual name.
1956-98: From Grass to Macadam and new Health & Safety rules
Over time, the high maintenance grass courts are converted to macadam helped by the sale of 2 courts in 1979 (now West View flats in The Drive). The site is cramped and the remaining 6 courts are too close to each other for the incoming safety rules.
1998: A new home in The Droveway
The Wilbury Avenue site is sold for residential development (now the Champions Row townhouses) and Pav & Ave buys the ex-playing fields of Brighton & Hove High School in The Droveway.The Club opens in November 1998 with 3 acrylic, 3 macadam and 4 floodlit artificial grass courts. The school’s changing hut became a temporary clubhouse and we have our own car park. Around 2,500 shrubs are planted to create an environmentally friendly wild shrubbery boundary.
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2001 onwards: A new era and [a lot of] new facilities
- 1 June 2002: a beautiful new clubhouse opens with veranda, bar and changing rooms.
- October 2003: the airhall is installed over two of the acrylic courts to provide indoor tennis from October to April.
- 2007: the Coaching Team’s hut replaces the original summerhouse (the school’s sports equipment hut/P.E. teachers’ office).
- 2009-2022: the 8 all-year outdoor courts are gradually upgraded to artificial clay and LED floodlights are installed.