Mather serves up tennis museum

A multi-million pound redevelopment of Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum at the All England Lawn Tennis Club comes to fruition next week, when the site relaunches under a design by Cheshire consultancy Mather & Co.


The consultancy was appointed by the All England Club two-and-a-half years ago to create a landmark museum, by updating the main exhibition space, museum shop and library to meet ’21st-Century needs and expectations’.


According to Mather & Co director Chris Mather, it was a challenge to produce a design for a venue that has ‘fewer than 500 visitors per day for most of the year, then up to 2000 visitors per day during Wimbledon fortnight’.


The new museum features a 200-degree, 12m-high ‘wrap-around’ cinema screen that shows Centre Court action from the 2005 Wimbledon Championships. Mather says the films try to convey the science of tennis by focusing on a split second of play and


analysing the image from various angles, including details of the players’ physiology and racquet technology.


The redesigned museum also features 3D holographic imaging of former champion John McEnroe, who walks through a recreation of the 1980s male changing room.


Last year, Mather & Co completed a redesign of the club’s retail store, working with DHA Design, 1977 and Big Studio Glass Design (DW 12 May 2005).

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