'Tennis with a Civic Heart'
Sutton Churches Lawn Tennis Club is a long-established community club, offering members and neighbours a welcoming place to enjoy sport and social life. RISE Design Studio was appointed to design a new clubhouse that replaces outdated facilities with modern, fully accessible accommodation and a fabric-first, low-energy approach to support the club's future. The scheme was granted planning permission by the London Borough of Sutton in April 2026, with the full support of the council.
Client: Sutton Churches Lawn Tennis Club
Location: Sutton, London
Local Authority: London Borough of Sutton
Plot Type: Suburban
Project Type: Community and Culture
Internal Area (GIA): 98 sqm
Structure: Hybrid mass timber (CLT walls, glulam roof)
Status: Planning approved, April 2026
Located in Sutton, the new clubhouse for Sutton Churches Lawn Tennis Club is designed as a contemporary timber pavilion that enhances both play and community life. Replacing ageing facilities, it provides a sustainable, flexible and welcoming hub for members, visitors and the wider neighbourhood.
The building sits comfortably within its site, subtly lowered into the landscape to create a clear sense of arrival from Gander Green Lane and step-free access throughout. Its form follows the honest logic of a simple pavilion, built as a hybrid mass timber structure with cross-laminated timber (CLT) walls and an expressive glulam roof, chosen for precision, low embodied carbon and a fast, predictable build. A crisp red standing seam roof gives the pavilion a strong, contextual identity, echoing the tiled rooftops of the surrounding streets.
Key elements include a generous clubroom that opens directly onto the courts through full-height glazing, an exposed timber ceiling lit by a central linear rooflight, shaded external terraces for spectatorship and social life, and discreet service areas that keep circulation clear. By separating the changing facilities from the social space, the clubroom can also be used on its own, allowing the building to host community uses through the week, from coffee mornings and parent and baby groups to repair cafés and art classes.
Sustainability is embedded from the outset. The clubhouse is designed to achieve the AECB CarbonLite New Build standard, with high levels of thermal insulation, airtight construction, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, an air source heat pump and integrated rooftop solar panels, reducing both running costs and environmental impact for decades to come.
More than a facility, the new clubhouse is conceived as a civic marker: a place where sport, community and architecture meet. Construction is expected to begin in December 2026, with completion targeted for December 2027.