Things you didn't know about...Wimbledon

Wimbledon has had a large number of different names
At various times, it has been known as Wimbedounyng, Wimeldon, Wimmeldun, Wymbaldone and Wimbleton.

Wimbledon is very old
In fact, it is prehistoric. Arrowheads and other tools belonging to prehistoric people have been found on Wimbledon Common. Some of these date back to 100,000 BC—around the last time a Brit won the Wimbledon tennis championship!

Before tennis, rifle-shooting was Wimbledon's claim to fame
In the 19th century, a huge shooting festival took place on Wimbledon Common. There was even a tram to take spectators from one part of the site to another. But by 1880, the rifles were so powerful that it became too dangerous to hold the event.

The Fox and Grapes pub in Wimbledon was once a changing room
Wimbledon FC (yes, the same club that beat Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup Final) used the pub for this purpose from 1868 to 1888.

Wimbledon Common and Putney Heath were famous for duels
Even the Prime Minister got in on this particular act in 1798: William Pitt and George Tierney (an opposition MP) met in a duel on the heath. Both missed.

Apart from rifles and duels, Wimbledon Common is famous for being...
...where Robert Baden-Powell wrote (part of) Scouting for Boys... where early eco-warriors the Wombles lived and recycled their rubbish... where the oldest cross-country running club in the world can be found... and where golfers must wear red (a rule of the London Scottish Golf Club on the Common).

The last highwayman was exhibited on a gibbet on Wimbledon Common
His name was Jerry Abershaw. He used to rob travellers on the London to Portsmouth road in Wimbledon. He was actually hanged at Kennington, but his body was taken to Wimbledon to be placed on the gibbet. Abershaw's nickname was the "laughing highwayman"—gallows humour, presumably.

The owner of Cannizaro House in Wimbledon had a quadruple-barrelled name
His full name was Admiral The Honourable Sir Reginald Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax and he owned the house (now a hotel) in the 1920s.

The first tennis match at Wimbledon was disrupted by rain
In 1922, King George V opened the new courts by Wimbledon Park. He banged a gong three times, and then, as soon as the tarpaulins were removed, it began to rain.

Arthur Schopenhauer lived in Wimbledon
There is a blue plaque on Eagle House in Wimbledon where the German philosopher lived in 1803.