The 20 best things to do in Wimbledon

The first temple of its kind to be built in the UK, this red-roofed haven is moments away from Wimbledon Common. It’s a Thai Buddhist temple but anyone is welcome to step inside or walk around in the grounds, which cover an area of approximately four acres, featuring an ornamental lake, a small grove, flower garden and an orchard. No one speaks in a raised voice around here, and there are little signs dotted around with positive thoughts and affirmations. We don’t want to make any promises, but if you happen to come at the right time, you may even be invited inside the temple itself. They also hold regular meditation classes and silent retreats.

Twice a year, Wimbledon Art Studios hosts one of London’s most accessible art fairs. More than 180 local artists open their studio doors, providing a golden opportunity to get your hands on affordable works while meeting the painters, photographers, designers and sculptors behind them. There’s normally a complimentary bar on one evening of the event, plus live music and creative workshops where you can have a go at making a masterpiece of your own. The fair happens once in the spring and then again in autumn, and it’s 100 percent free to attend. 

Let’s be real, tennis is to Wimbledon what wine is to Bordeaux. Beyond hosting the Wimbledon Tennis Championships each July, the All England Lawn Tennis Club is open to visitors year-round. You can go on behind-the-scenes tours of the 42-acre site and get a glimpse inside the 18 Championship grass courts, including the iconic Centre Court. At the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum, you’ll find memorabilia dating as far back as 1555, a 3D cinema explaining the science of the game and a holographic ‘ghost’ of former world champion John McEnroe roaming the dressing room. You cannot be serious? I’m afraid we are serious.

This boozer run by Wiltshire’s Hop Back Brewery, with its leafy beer garden, is a local favourite. Tipple-wise it serves ales, wines and Hop Back’s Summer Lightning beer. Big on creating a proper community atmosphere, it puts on regular quiz nights, games nights, barbecues, live folk music and open-mic evenings. It scooped up a Time Out Love London award in 2018 and was crowned CAMRA’s south west London pub of the year in 2023. 

At 1,140 acres, this sprawling expanse of grassland, ponds and forest is one of the biggest green spaces in London, and you will probably lose your bearings at some point. But aimlessly wandering is the best way to experience the Common. If you decide not to sit and take in the views, or poke around the teeny museum at Wimbledon Windmill, or stop for a pint at The Telegraph or the Fox and Grapes, it takes about an hour to stroll from the Wimbledon side over to the Putney side. A full circuit will take you around two hours. 

This exceptional children’s theatre has earned its place in generations of young hearts since it launched in 1979. With a 300-capacity auditorium and a 70-seat studio, the Wimbledon theatre stages in-house shows, workshops and storytelling sessions for families and schools. Among more than four decades of productions, Polka has put on hip-hop interpretations of Shakespeare, hosted literary events with children’s authors like Jacqueline Wilson and showcased a stage adaptation of the Panchatantra Indian fables. It also houses a creative learning studio, exhibition spaces, a sensory play area, a cafe and a garden.

Just off the southwest corner of Wimbledon Common, you’ll find a more pampered bit of green. Once part of a grand estate (the manor house is now a hotel), Cannizaro Park has been public property since 1949 and has loads of pretty patches to wander through. There are Italian and Mediterranean gardens, a rose garden, a herb garden and a Gothic-style aviary, which stopped housing exotic birds in 2023 and now functions as a pop up art gallery. Like trees? With more than 200 species, this place has the most diverse collection of them in all of Greater London. Come in the summer and you might catch an open-air production from the Mayhem Theatre Company, which takes up residence at the park in June and July each year.

From the Gladwin Brothers (the posh countryside siblings behind The Shed in Notting Hill and Rabbit in Chelsea), the Black Lamb says that it’s all about ‘hunter-gatherer’, farm to fork style dining. The menu switches up week on week, but favourites like mushroom marmite eclairs and the hearty beef wellington stick around most of the year. A significant chunk of the wine list is courtesy of the Gladwin family’s Nutbourne Vineyard in West Sussex, where the brothers grew up. Visit on a Wednesday evening for a helping of live jazz with your dinner.

Even more reason to forget that Wimbledon is, in fact, part of the city. Set on part of the National Trust’s Morden Hall Park Estate, Deen City Farm provides south Wimbledon with a healthy dose of the countryside. Meet farmyard residents like alpacas, barn owls, donkeys and farm cats, buy grass nuts to feed the animals, or fawn over ducklings, chicks and lambs. If you fall in love with any of the animals on-site, you can take part in the farm’s sponsorship scheme to help them care for your new furry friend.

One of the more recent additions to Wimbledon Village, Good Fortune Club is bright and buzzy with a sprawling menu of Cantonese dishes. But it’s the handmade dim sum (available all day long) in which the owners take the most pride. Stop by with a large, hungry posse to pack your table with bamboo steamers and sample har gau (shrimp-filled dumplings,) xiao long bao (pork soup dumplings), cuttlefish cake and more.

Given Wimbledon’s thriving population of yummy mummies, its charity shops tend to have a pretty great range of second-hand garb. If you enjoy sifting through rails for designer labels and high-end vintage treasures, your best bets are Mary's Living & Giving Shop or Shelter Boutique in the village and Royal Trinity Hospice down in the main town. 

Touring productions love to stop off at the New Wimbledon Theatre, so much so that it ends up hosting some 45 productions a year. So, don’t assume that because this isn’t the West End, you won’t get the big hitters. Pretty Woman: The Musical had a run here shortly after a sell-out season at The Savoy Theatre and Sir Ian McKellen graced the stage in 2024 when it hosted the first previews of Robert Icke’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV Parts 1&2.

Wimbledon Village Farmers Market pops up around the corner from the Common every Sunday from 10am to 3pm. The plethora of street food lining the road includes enormous gourmet scotch eggs, masses of cheese, Portuguese doughnuts, freshly made stuffed pasta and cheesy Colombian arepas – a picnic of dreams. If that’s not enough, there’s also the Wimbledon Park Farmers Market, which opens for business at Wimbledon Park Primary School every Saturday from 9am to 1pm.

Hiding behind a secret door at the back of Dalcini (the UK’s first ever Indo-Chinese restaurant), Holy Brew Speakeasy takes from Indian mythology to create 'sacred concoctions' like the Parvati Potion, complete with gin, yuzu, and orange bitters; Kali’s Fury, a mix tequila, tamarind, and black pepper and Varuni’s Elixir, made of vodka, cucumber, mint and cumin. And rest assured, it doesn’t skimp on the bar snacks. Order small plates like duck croquette with hoisin mayo, spicy pulled curry lamb with coin paratha or cheese cherry pineapple sticks to go with your bevs.

Crack Comedy Club brings pre-party laughs to Tunnel 267 – Wimbledon’s only nightclub – every Saturday night from 8pm to 10pm. For standup sets from four or five comics, tickets are £25 for general admission on the door or £21.50 if you book online in advance. You can also buy tickets that include dinner from a local restaurant beforehand, and if you stick around afterwards you’ll get free entry to Tunnel’s clubnight. Three in one! 

Of its four south-west outposts, Dropshot has two that serve up hefty brunches on the daily – one on Wimbledon Park Road and another on Leopold Road. The portions here are breathtakingly generous, and the menu goes well beyond the standard eggs benny or avocado on toast. Some of its standout scran includes the mozzarella and chilli jam-filled potato pancakes and the big fat slices of French toast laden with monterey jack cheese and fresh pesto (or loaded with tiramisu cream and berries). The coffee is fantastic, too.

It’s no V&A, but the small, volunteer-run Wimbledon Museum is packed full of local history worth knowing (not to be confused with the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum). Among its collection, there’s an assemblage of Suffragette artefacts – which includes the ‘Holloway Brooch’ awarded to local Rose Yates after she was released from Holloway Prison – some slightly freaky old toys, 18th-century artwork depicting the area and Wimbledon FC memorabilia. The museum opens every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 2.30pm to 5pm. 

Got a spare Tuesday evening to fill? Whether you’re already a bonafide movie buff or simply trying to broaden your silver screen repertoire, look to Wimbledon Film Club. The club curates a programme of indie, foreign-language and overlooked movies that are shown at Curzon Wimbledon on Tuesdays, often followed by discussions and Q&As. It doesn’t matter if you’re only in town for a short time – non-members are totally welcome.

Yes, Wimbledon can get rowdy. Facing Wimbledon Theatre, The Old Frizzle is one of the area’s most bustling waterholes. It's run by Livelyhood, a company with six other indie boozers across the south of the city to its name and well-versed in putting on a party. There are live music sessions from bands and DJs here most weekends. It’s also kitted out with three huge screens, making it one of the best spots in town on matchdays. 

This local Italian serves up sunny Mediterranean food in a contemporary setting of oak floors, bare tables pastel-green colours and comfy leather seating, with a dramatic skylight topping things off. Food comes from an open kitchen, and the menu covers the usual pasta, risottos and thin-crust pizzas, with back-up from antipasti assemblages (prosciutto with fig salad and pomegranate dressing, for example) and classic mains with a twist – panko-crusted calf’s liver with caramelised onion and creamy mash is the showstopper.