Our History
St. Bartholomew's and the Royal London Lawn Tennis Club is a historic tennis club, dating back to the late 1800s and is a member of the United Hospitals Tennis Association, which holds the second oldest tennis tournament in the world, the UH Cup, preceded only by the All England Championship at Wimbledon. The Tennis Club was one of the first Barts sports clubs established, alongside rugby football, association football, cricket and boxing. Our original college sports ground was in Winchmore Hill, back when there were only around 300 members across all sports. This number grew to over 1000 in the decades to come, leading to the clubs using Chislehurst as their new home ground.
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Following the merger of St Bartholomew’s Medical College and The Royal London Hospital Medical College with Queen Mary and Westfield College in 1995, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, and Queen Mary University of London were established. Following suit, Barts and The London Tennis Club formed.
The current club colours, black and white, are based on the Coat of Arms used by John Wakering, the Master of the St Bartholomew's Hospital from 1423 to 1462. |
Dr Alan Naftalin 1949-2012Perhaps one of our most notable alumni, Dr Alan Naftalin, was once a member of BL Tennis and served the club throughout his university career, including as President. He worked as a Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist at Newham General Hospital for 27 years, and was described as “instrumental” in developing Women’s Services at Newham and a “champion of innovation in teaching and learning”. In appreciation of Alan after his passing, his unit at Bart’s Health NHS Trust was renamed the “Alan Naftalin Centre for Education”, and the club created a new annual award to be presented to a club member who has shown an all-round exceptional commitment and dedication to the club; The Alan Naftalin Shield.
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Alan Naftalin Shield Bearers
2012 - Syed Hassan
2013 - Dan Rix
2014 - Sean Morgan
2015 - Riana Patel
2016 - Maria Kyriakides
2017 - Gemma White
2018 - Thaaqib Nazar
2019 - Neil Linus & Reya Srivastava
2020 - Darsh Shah
2013 - Dan Rix
2014 - Sean Morgan
2015 - Riana Patel
2016 - Maria Kyriakides
2017 - Gemma White
2018 - Thaaqib Nazar
2019 - Neil Linus & Reya Srivastava
2020 - Darsh Shah