Welcome to Pavilion & Avenue, Brighton and Hove’s most progressive Tennis Club. It is one of this country’s top performance centres recognised through it’s achievement in junior tennis. There is also plenty of team and social tennis that concentrates on providing tennis for everyone at all levels – senior – performance – social and junior.
Situated on the Droveway in Hove, in extensive landscaped gardens with distant sea views, the club has 10 tennis courts including 2 courts covered in Winter months. Court surfaces include 2 acrylic courts under a bubble and 8 artificial clay courts. All the clay courts have the latest LED lighting systems.
‘We welcome and cater for tennis players of all abilities including new players, rusty racquets, social, competitive and performance players. The LTA has recently changed the Player Performance Pathway for individuals looking to maximise their potential and we are very pleased to have been selected as one of only two LPDC’s (Local Player Development Centres’ in the County and one of fifty in the Country. On top of our extensive adult and junior programme and ‘Tennis Mark’ status (which is a mark of excellence awarded by the LTA in recognition of following guidelines concerning club management, coaching and child protection), as an LPDC our main objective is to provide regular, high quality local training and competitions for aspiring players aged 10 and under’.
The coaching team run squads for all ages and abilities as well as affordable one to one lessons.
There is a great social tennis scene with drop in tennis every day except Monday. We have internal tennis box leagues, club teams, regular fun tournaments and competitive tournaments run throughout the year.
Come and join Pavilion and Avenue and discover why it is Brighton and Hove’s favourite tennis club.
History of Pavilion and Avenue Tennis Club
The Pavilion Tennis Club was formed in 1888 and its first home was on the Pavilion Lawns in Brighton.
Around the turn of the century, the Club had the opportunity to acquire a piece of land in Wilbury Avenue, Hove, formerly a brick (clay) quarry and then a Victorian household rubbish site, which had been levelled and covered with soil. The Club created 8 grass tennis courts and later purchased the freehold. Three of the grass courts were changed to shale in the 1920s.
Another club close by, The Avenue Club in The Droveway, Hove (now The Paddock) sold its site in 1956 and the two clubs amalgamated to become The Pavilion & Avenue Lawn Tennis Club.
Because of the costs involved in the upkeep of grass courts, it was decided to convert these 5 courts to macadam. At this time there were no grants or loans from the LTA so the Club sold 2 of its shale courts for building in 1979 (now West View flats in The Drive), in order to finance the project. A few years later, the remaining shale court was re-laid with macadam, giving the Club 6 macadam courts, a little too close to each other for the new safety rules that were gradually being introduced – it was a ‘cramped’ site, with no car parking facilities.
The Club decided to begin to look for a larger new home within the town, and in 1998 sold the Wilbury Avenue site for building (now Champions Row – 16 semi-detached town houses) and bought the playing fields of Brighton & Hove High School in The Droveway, Hove, which had become surplus to the School’s requirements following purchasing a new junior school with a playing field.
The Club’s new courts at The Droveway were ready for use in November 1998 – 3 acrylic, 3 macadam and 4 floodlit artificial grass. The school’s changing hut became a temporary clubhouse and we had our own car park. Some, 2,500 shrubs were planted to create an environmentally friendly wild shrubbery boundary.
In December 2001 work commenced on building a beautiful new clubhouse and decking veranda with a servery bar plus changing rooms – it was opened on June 1st 2002.
October 2003 saw the installation of a wintertime airhall with internal floodlighting over two of the acrylic courts to provide indoor tennis.
In 2007 the original summerhouse (the school’s sports equipment hut and P.E. teachers’ office) became the Coaching Team’s ‘hut’.
In September 2009, the 4 artificial grass courts were reopened with completely new surfaces and nets.