A stroll through the secrets of Wimbledon

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The scent of the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club (AELTC), the tennis club that has organised the Wimbledon Tournament since 1877, can be felt in Southfields, the stop on the District Line where every day between the end of June and the first ten days of July thousands of fans exit the Tube in an orderly fashion to take the avenue that leads down to the AELTC. Along Wimbledon Park Road, there are those who sell Panama hats with a double-layered green and purple ribbon – the quintessential Wimbledon colours, which symbolise the grass court and royalty respectively – and those who protest about the excessively high prices of the tournament, while the 39 bus, at a walking pace, advances towards the queue, the legendary Wimbledon queue, where those who were not selected during the Public Ballot, by lining up with a number and a lot of patience, can still hope to get a ticket for the AELTC.

For the luckiest ones, those who already have the precious pass, the secular pilgrimage towards the Doherty Gates, the gates of the Aeltc, continues instead up to Church Road. In front of the entrance some girls distribute The Style Post, a special edition of Esquire published on the occasion of the tournament, where tips and little secrets are distilled on how to live the Wimbledon experience in style: the quintessence of posh. “The Aeltc is much more than just a sports complex: it is the place where tradition meets taste, where the battle between gladiators takes place on the courts, while the sartorial battles take place in the stands”, writes Teo Van Den Broeke. Because Wimbledon has always been a question of style. And not only on the courts where the grammar of white does not allow exceptions, where the grass is eight millimetres high and where the applause is delicate, but also walking along the flower-lined avenues, in the queue to order a beer or on the wooden benches of the side courts.

Ralph Lauren's green and purple English silk tie, with the logo "The Championships Wimbledon", is a must-have among AELTC gentlemen, but this year the Strawberry Collection is also going strong at the official shop of the tournament . It is presented like this: "Strawberries are so popular at The Championships that our design team has created a wide range of strawberry-inspired items as part of the Wimbledon Collection. Whether it's clothing, homeware or a Wimbledon souvenir, treat yourself to something sweet this summer". Strawberries and cream, as we know, are the sweet symbol of the Championships, a theme so serious that the management of the tournament has made a mini-documentary, The Perfect Strawberry, and there is a strawberry manager who manages the entire journey of the strawberries, Malling Centenary variety, grown by the nearby Hugh Lowe Farms, hand-picked and delivered every day to Wimbledon.

According to a BBC article, the strawberries and cream combination dates back at least to the Elizabethan era, when strawberries, already considered a symbol of luxury and fertility, were served with cream at banquets at court. The consecration, however, came with the Wimbledon tournament. And an article in the Telegraph from 1881 confirms this. “Shortly before the start of the final, the refreshment pavilion had completely emptied because the distribution of strawberries and cream had begun outside,” writes the English newspaper. This year, experts say, is a bumper year for the quality of strawberries: an exceptional year. But how many are eaten during the two weeks of Wimbledon? Almost 35 tons. And those that are not consumed, we read on the explanatory panel next to the Strawberries and Cream stand, “are frozen and used to make strawberry jam for scones and sponge cake served in our Wingfield Café, open all year round”. Zero waste. And it has remained popular at £2.70, compared to Pimm's, the iconic British drink made with ginger ale, mint leaves and fruit, which sells for £12.25. But despite the price increases, no Englishman will be without his Pimm's when evening falls on the romantic hill at AELTC, where fans without tickets to Centre Court or Court 1 gather to watch the matches on the giant screen, with the London skyline in the background.

Initially renamed Henman Hill, after the courses of national idol Tim Henman, a four-time semi-finalist on the London grass, it was then named Murray Mound after Andy Murray's triumph in 2013, becoming the first British player to win the tournament since Fred Perry in 1936. The hill, the AELTC has announced, will have a new face in 2027, on the occasion of the 150th edition of the most elegant tennis tournament in the world.

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