The Wimbledon Queue is a British institution. It is also lacking in decent facilities, according to a new report from the community panel set up last year in response to what has become known locally as ‘poo-gate’ – tennis fans caught short and taking advantage of the nearby woods.
The Wimbledon Championships Community Panel (WCCP) met last month and things quickly took a scatological turn, according to a report from the Friends of Wimbledon Park (FOWP). Its report reveals that there were still not enough toilets in the first week, even though the All England Club had said in its summer community newsletter that there should be “plenty of capacity for everyone”.
It all started in 2025, when a shortage of toilets left people relieving themselves around the park, including in Horse Close Wood and Ashen Grove Wood. The community was angry, and the panel was set up to investigate and remedy the problems. It is chaired by Fleur Anderson, the MP for Putney, and this year was its first Championships.
The club had put in a new sewer so that all 108 toilets could be connected to the mains, its newsletter said. The panel’s table, which FOWP published on 3 October, counts 111 cubicles, three cabins of urinals and two accessible toilets, then delivers its verdict: “Not enough for spectators in 1st week.”
Toilets crop up a lot: six of the table’s 19 rows mention them, or people relieving themselves outdoors. The table sets each request the panel made in September 2025 against what happened in 2026.
Fewer people used the woods and other land outside the queue as a toilet than in 2025, the panel’s impression is, and the table lists the closing of Horse Close Wood, clearer signs, a big screen carrying behaviour messages and more stewards and security guards, although “some issues still need resolving”. Most of the cases came in the days before the Championships and in the first week, it says, when the crowd in the Great Field, where the queue is held, outgrew the number of WCs set aside for them.
The club provided 108 toilets “despite a 200-unit request”, says a Wimbledon Society summary of the residents’ report, adding that facilities were “severely inadequate” in the first week. The summary does not say who made the request.
A queue inside the Queue
Queueing is the whole point of the Wimbledon Queue. This year, the loos had a queue of their own. At 10am, some 50 people were lined up for the women’s loo by the children’s play area and some 15 for the men’s, an unnamed observer wrote in FOWP’s report to the panel. They were there, people told the observer, because the club’s temporary toilets had a wait of about 45 minutes.
FOWP says Merton Council shut the playground toilets from 7am to 10am; the panel’s table says they opened at 9.30am, not 7am. It also notes a disabled toilet “remained locked throughout with no reason”.
The queue was not due to open until 2pm on Sunday 28 June, FOWP says, but people were arriving the day before, and tents arrived on Saturday afternoon. For those early birds, a Wimbledon Society summary of the residents’ report records “zero preparation or crowd control” before the club took over.
Where people camped before the club’s licence kicked in still needs clarifying, the panel’s table says. FOWP says those early arrivals would be Merton’s job, as the park’s owner, but because Wimbledon is the club’s event it argues “a joint approach is better”. If camping is allowed, it adds, there is a duty of care to provide toilets. FOWP said in its 2025 report that it has no access to the commercial agreement between Merton and the club.
Next year, the panel’s to-do list has six items. The first is managing campers and “anti-social behaviour” before the club’s licence begins; the others include more toilets in the first week, enforcing existing rules more effectively and a better way to complain to the club and Merton. An updated progress report is due in spring 2027.
What park users said
Of the 313 people who answered FOWP’s survey of park users, half from SW18 postcodes, 62% said the queue and camping inconvenience them or they avoid the park. Separate questions found 58% said the club’s changes had made things much better and 89% understood the need to close Horse Close Wood.
The survey questions need changing next year, FOWP’s own notes say, so that people can tick more than one answer. It ran online from 12 to 20 July and was promoted through FOWP’s channels and local groups.
The cars, and the golf course
FOWP’s answer to the cars is to move them: there would be more room for guests, and a better atmosphere, if car parking were relocated, its report to the panel says. It suggests setting it up on the club’s land, which Merton could also use for events and for visitors to the public park. That would let the Horse Close Wood car park go, FOWP says; its draft plan for the wood would also return the car park to woodland. The report does not name the land.
On parking in the public park, the club said “the aim was to cease after 2026”, FOWP’s 2023 report records. The same report says the club had 30 hectares on which it could park cars and “failed to use the golf club car park”. FOWP says it asked Merton and the club in 2022 to end parking in the public park and heard from neither.
The club also owns the former golf course next to the park, where it plans an 8,000-seat stadium and 38 new courts. The Wimbledon Society, which opposes the expansion, says the queue and spectator parking would still sit in the public park under the plans. The planning permission is due to be heard at the Court of Appeal this Wednesday.
Who to contact
The All England Club’s community team: community@aeltc.com. Championships enquiries: 020 8944 1066, option 3.
Merton Council, for general park matters: 020 8274 4901.
Wandsworth Council, for noise and parking in Wandsworth streets: 020 8871 6000.
FOWP plans to repeat its survey of park users next year.