3-101-188 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Tennis Court, James Street, Haymarket, c1886. 'An inscription on a stone let into the wall...gives 1673 as the date of James Street [in London]. The Tennis Court is, however, older, and appears to have formed part of Piccadilly Hall, a celebrated gaming house established about 1635...The insertion of windows in the lower part of the structure, and the glazing of the openings above, has destroyed much of the character of the building, which, however, still shows the main lines of a Tennis Court like that at Hampton Court. The building was used for its original purpose up to 1867 or 1868...' Description by Alfred Marks. Built in brick with a tiled roof, c1634 by Simon Osbaldeston, the tennis court, according to Edward Walford, was one of the favourite haunts of Charles II and from 1800 it became the headquarters of tennis in England. However, when the building closed as a tennis court in 1866, the building became a store for military clothing. By 1911 the building was being used by a wholesale bookseller, after which it is not clear when it finally disappeared...Dixon's photograph...emphasizes the fenestration of the building showing light hitting the glass of the upper windows. Sign reads: 'Maxwell & Keys, Wine Merchants'.