An historic Edinburgh tennis club is set to install four huge unique all-weather courts
The City of Edinburgh Council validated the application from The Grange in Stockbridge on December 29, 2021.
They want to build two new indoor courts, covered by massive air supported domes, and two padel tennis courts, with a large steel structure, on the site of an old bowling green. All four courts will have flood lights and will be enclosed within canopies.
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The Grange say the site for the four new courts has been selected as it is the most secluded within the grounds and offers the greatest opportunity to screen the air dome from external views due to the presence of existing trees.
It is envisaged that the new facilities would be open from 8am to 10pm daily, in line with other tennis and squash facilities at the club.
The Grange say they are the home of tennis in Scotland, and the first tennis national championships were played at the location in 1878.
The club, at Portgower Place, itself dates back to 1832, and is also famous for being the home of Scotland’s national cricket team.
The Grange Dyvours Tennis Club, Tennis Scotland and the Lawn Tennis Association have all been part of the stakeholder engagement process to date in developing the design proposals.
Gordon Reid MBE, the multiple grand slam and Paralympic winning wheelchair tennis player, trained at The Grange in between winning titles at Queen’s and Wimbledon.
Today there are over 400 adult and junior members of the tennis club at The Grange.
Mac Consulting Limited prepared the planning application for The Grange and they explain why the tennis club is building the new courts.
They say: “There is however an obvious limitation with grass courts that they are only available during the summer months thus the club is able to cater to significantly more players during the summer months than winter months when the grass courts are closed.
“It has therefore been a long-standing aim of the club to reintroduce indoor tennis facilities so that tennis can be played fully year-round in all-weathers, especially during the winter months when the club is not as fully utilised. The addition of two indoor courts would therefore help to redress this balance by having courts that are available year-round.”
The City of Edinburgh Council are expected to make a decision in the coming weeks and months.
