--- title: "Strawberries and cream: the quiet star of Wimbledon's summer stage" description: "As the Wimbledon Championships return to the All England Club in late June, one tradition is as fixed as the white dress code and the green grass: bowls of strawberries and cream, a Victorian indulgence that has trailed the tournament since its very first edition in 1877." category: "Culture" category_url: https://newsparlor.com/category/culture author: "Marcus Reed" published: 2026-06-23T20:36:00.000Z updated: 2026-06-23T20:36:00.000Z canonical: https://newsparlor.com/article/strawberries-and-cream-the-quiet-star-of-wimbledon-s-summer-stage tags: ["Wimbledon", "strawberries and cream", "tennis", "British culture", "food history", "Kent"] --- # Strawberries and cream: the quiet star of Wimbledon's summer stage As the Wimbledon Championships return to the All England Club in late June, one tradition is as fixed as the white dress code and the green grass: bowls of strawberries and cream, a Victorian indulgence that has trailed the tournament since its very first edition in 1877. When the Wimbledon Championships open in late June 2026, the world's oldest tennis tournament will once again be accompanied by a dish that has nothing to do with sport and everything to do with summer: strawberries and cream. ## A Victorian pairing The tournament and the fruit have grown up together. The first Championships were staged by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in 1877, in a Britain where the strawberry was prized as a fleeting luxury of the English summer. Ripe for only a few weeks, the fruit was a fixture of garden parties and high-society gatherings, and pairing it with fresh cream was already an established Victorian treat. Slotting it into a genteel new sporting occasion was a natural fit, and the combination has been associated with Wimbledon ever since. The ritual endured as the tournament became a national institution. Eating strawberries while watching tennis is now woven into Wimbledon's identity as tightly as Pimm's, the queue and the hush before a serve. ## By the bowl, by the tonne The numbers behind the tradition are striking. Across the fortnight, organisers and commercial partners typically cite figures of more than 1.9 million strawberries, around 38 tonnes of fruit and roughly 7,000 litres of cream, served as about 140,000 portions. These widely repeated totals vary slightly from source to source and are best treated as approximate rather than audited counts. That scale rests on a tightly run supply chain. The strawberries are grown in Kent at Hugh Lowe Farms in Mereworth, a family business that the [All England Club](https://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/about_wimbledon/2018-06-30_our_producers.html) says has supplied the Championships for decades. The farm, run by Marion Regan, grows the Malling Centenary variety, praised for its uniform shape and sweet flavour. Berries are picked in the days around the matches and trucked the short distance to south-west London so that spectators eat them close to peak ripeness. ## The famous price, and a rare rise For a tournament associated with expense, the strawberries became a symbol of restraint. A portion was held at £2.50 for years, a price the All England Club pointedly froze from 2010 onward even as inflation reshaped the rest of the menu. That changed in 2025. The club raised the price of a portion to £2.70, the first increase in 15 years. A spokesperson said the club had "taken the decision to slightly increase the price of strawberries this year from £2.50 to £2.70," adding that the "modest increase still ensures that our world-famous strawberries are available at a very reasonable price," according to the [Grocery Gazette](https://www.grocerygazette.co.uk/2025/07/02/strawberries-and-cream-sees-price-increase-at-wimbledon-for-first-time-in-15-years/). Even after the rise, the dish remains among the cheapest items on the grounds. The menu around the bowl has also been quietly modernised, with a plant-based cream alternative offered on request — a nod to changing tastes at a tournament that guards its traditions but is not entirely frozen in 1877. ## Tradition as identity For all the data, the appeal is simple. Strawberries and cream is cheap, seasonal and unmistakably English, a small luxury anyone in the grounds can share regardless of which court they can reach. In a tournament defined by ritual, it remains one of the few that spectators get to taste — and one of the surest signs that the English summer, however briefly, has arrived. ## Sources - [Our Producers — The Championships, Wimbledon](https://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/about_wimbledon/2018-06-30_our_producers.html) - [Strawberries and cream sees price increase at Wimbledon for first time in 15 years](https://www.grocerygazette.co.uk/2025/07/02/strawberries-and-cream-sees-price-increase-at-wimbledon-for-first-time-in-15-years/) - [A Taste of Wimbledon](https://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/news/articles/2024-07-02/a_taste_of_wimbledon.html)