Year 8 Gifted and Talented Trip to Hampton Court Tennis Court

This is a piece of work completed by a pupil in the Year 8 Gifted Core group. It is the first completed task of an ongoing project looking at the history of Hampton Court Palace; a local historical landmark:

The painting here shows the outside of the Royal Tennis Court and Hampton Court Palace. Tennis was played on this site by Henry VIII from 1528. As a young man Henry was very athletic and passionately addicted to sport -particularly tennis. Legend has it that he heard of the execution of Queen Anne Boleyn as he played tennis at Hampton Court Palace.

Hampton Court has the oldest tennis court in use in the world and is the only one in Great Britain which the public are admitted (April-October) to see and watch a game if it is in progress.

Charles II after his restoration in 1660 ordered the extensive refitting of the Tudor Tennis Court. The interlaced initials above the net on the wall opposite the corridors are of King William III and Queen Mary II (1689-1702). Since the end of the 17th Century the court has undergone little alteration.

The courts are doubly asymmetric—one end of the court is shaped differently from the other and the left and right sides of the court are also different. The service happens from only one end of the court and there are numerous styles of service, many with exotic names such as "railroad", "bobble", "poop", "pique", "boomerang" and "giraffe"!

The tennis played on this indoor court is different from lawn tennis. It is called real tennis. Real tennis is the original racket sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis, or tennis, is descended. Matches of real tennis are played on a court with walls on all sides, three of which have sloping roofs (known as "penthouses") with various openings, and a buttress (tambour) off which shots may be played. No two tennis courts are exactly alike-Hampton Court is slightly wider than others.