Best Restaurants, Bars and Things to Do in Wimbledon, London

About Wimbledon

Wimbledon Village works best in the months when the tennis is not on. From September through to May, the High Street and the streets running off it are a genuinely pleasant place to eat and drink, with independent restaurants, wine bars and gastropubs serving the local population that has chosen to live here partly because of the quality of the neighbourhood's food and drink offer. The village has a compact and walkable character that makes it easy to move between places, and the proximity of the Common gives a walk or a run a natural beginning and end.

The town centre around Wimbledon station is a different proposition — more convenience than destination, though there are individual restaurants worth knowing in among the chains. The area has improved significantly in recent years as the population has grown and demand for quality independent food has increased. The streets immediately around the station and running toward Wimbledon Broadway have the most options.

Lets Discover creators who cover Wimbledon know the distinction between the village and the town and recommend accordingly. Their picks tend to be concentrated in the village but also include the spots in the town centre that stand out from the surrounding average.

Wimbledon Village High Street is the natural starting point, with a concentration of independent restaurants, wine bars, gastropubs and cafes running the length of the street and into the surrounding lanes. Wimbledon Hill Road, descending from the village toward the town, has its own cluster of neighbourhood restaurants and cafes that are worth knowing. The Dog and Fox and the Hand in Hand are among the better gastropubs in this part of south London and anchor the village's pub culture. Wimbledon town centre around the Broadway and the streets between the station and the Centre Court shopping mall has a more varied and mixed quality, but individual standout restaurants have established themselves in the area. Wimbledon Common itself has the Windmill Cafe near the windmill and the Fox and Grapes on Camp Road, both of which have a strong local following for weekend brunch and lunch.

History and culture in Wimbledon

Wimbledon's place in global culture is defined entirely by lawn tennis, but the neighbourhood's history extends considerably further back. The area was settled in the Saxon period, and Wimbledon Manor was a significant estate in the medieval period. The common has been common land since at least the 12th century, and the Iron Age earthwork known as Caesar's Camp on its southern edge suggests settlement in the area from much earlier. The Wimbledon Championships began in 1877 when the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club staged the first lawn tennis tournament on its grounds at Worple Road, then moved to the current Church Road ground in 1922. The transition from a local event to the world's most prestigious tennis tournament happened gradually through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Wimbledon Village's current character as an affluent, independent neighbourhood was largely established in the Victorian period, when the railway connection to London made it viable as a commuter suburb for the prosperous middle class, and the quality of housing and public spaces built in that era is still largely intact.