Hoping to brave the most famous queue in sporting history? Well, as someone who recently had her first Wimbledon Queue experience, I’m excited today to write up a list of all the practical tips and must-knows that I learned the hard way during my visit on the first day of Wimbledon 2024!

From a breakdown of the Queue process (with timestamps) and recommended times to arrive, to packing recommendations and other survival tips, this guide will break down everything you need to know about getting tickets and passes through the Wimbledon Queue.

After all, people often say that ‘the Queue’ is as much of an experience as Wimbledon itself… and honestly? I agree! Something about the hours of waiting just made the overall experience feel more magical once we got in. Though sleep deprivation does have a way of making everything seem more dream-like.

Either way, queuing for Wimbledon is an experience you won’t forget! So, keep reading for a quick guide to the famous Wimbledon Queue… and excuse any typos! This won’t be my most eloquent post but I figure it’s best to just get the info out there ASAP, spellcheck be damned. 

The Wimbledon Queue: A Brief Introduction

For those who need a brief intro, Wimbledon is the world’s oldest tennis tournament, and one of the few sporting events in the world that gives fans a chance to purchase premium tickets on the day-of…

The process however is possibly the most British thing ever – a good old fashioned queue!!! (Or line, for my fellow North Americans).

In sum, every day of the tournament, there are about 1500 show court tickets available for queuers (with assigned seats), as well as several thousand Grounds Passes that give attendees access to the grounds and all courts apart from the show ones.

The process for securing these tickets involves a queue that often begins the day before, or even two (for centre court hopefuls!).

Luckily, the Queue is a civilized affair – with each Queuer given a numbered Queue Ticket that designates their spot in line, as well a number of fair policies like a 30 minute absence limit and the strict one ticket per person policy which prevents people from queueing for absent friends.

The distribution of show court tickets for Queuers is as follows:

• 500 for No 2 Court
• 500 for No 1 Court
• 500 for Central Court (except for the last four days of the tournament)

NOTE: Those with seated tickets for the Show Courts also get all the perks of a Grounds Pass, so you’re able to still go around and explore the grounds/watch matches on any of the other courts too.

Overall, the Queue process at Wimbledon goes like this:

• Go to the official Queue area in Wimbledon Park either the night before or the morning of the day you want to attend
• Find the big flag that designates the end of the queue
• Get to the end of the queue and grab a queue ticket from a Steward, which specifies your queue number and the event date (guard this ticket with your life as this will hold your spot in line
• Get comfy until the early morning, when the Stewards will come around with a wake-up call for campers just after 5am
• Deposit any bags/camping equipment at Left Luggage, then head back to your spot and wait for the Queue to move again
• Shuffle along the Queue, getting your myWimbledon ID scanned along the way
• Those in the first 1500ish Queue Cards are given wristbands partway along the Queue for their show court of choice (or whatever is available), essentially reserving their show court tickets
• Keep queuing until you reach the actual ticket purchase area, at which point you finally buy your tickets
• Move into the Queue Village, where there is seating, a large screen, some food options, as well as many freebies from tournament sponsors
• When you want/are able to, enter the official tournament grounds after a quick bag check!

All in all, depending on when you arrive, the process of getting from the Queue to the actual tournament can last well over 5-6 hours, so be prepared! I have my full experience with time stamps below as a camper, but do now the timings will vary a lot depending on when you arrive, and what day you go.

You can learn more in the official queue guide.

How to Get to the Wimbledon Queue

After taking place for decades, it should come as no surprise that the Wimbledon Queue is a highly organized affair. Gone are the days of pitching tents on the pavement outside, these days all camping and queuing takes place on the grounds of Wimbledon Park, specifically the Northern half, with the main entrance and welcome area around here, at the intersection of Woodspring Rd and Wimbledon Park Rd, by the site of Car Park 10.

According to the stewards, this is the entrance that is open and manned 24/7, so I would go for this one, especially if you are coming by by public transport as it’s about an 8 minute walk from the Southfields Tube Station.

There are however other gates as well that are open between 6am-10pm:

• On Revelstoke Road here, which is right by the Queue toilets and very close to the Queue area
• On Home Park Road here, which is a farther walk from the Queue site but a very pleasant one that goes through the park, and is pretty close to Wimbledon Park Underground Station

For a visual of where the tents are and where the queue flows through, you can see the official map of the queueing area here.

If you can, I would advise coming by public transport or taxi because parking is a bit of a nightmare (with limited spots that require booking in advance), so unless you plan well ahead, you’ll likely need to rely on public transport for the final bit of your journey anyway.

We parked at Wimbledon Quarter shopping mall, which had a special Wimbledon offer, and ended up catching the Tube two stops to get to Southfields (camping gear in tow!)

When to Arrive at the Wimbledon Queue

Now for the question I’m sure you’re all wondering, how early exactly do you have to get to the Queue to score tickets?

Generally speaking, if you want any shot at the 1500 Show Court tickets, I would say you’d have to camp overnight. We arrived at 9pm and were 1220 in the Queue.

If you just want a Grounds Pass however, you can probably get away with just arriving early in the morning, although the process has changed a bit for 2024 and it sounds like (according to this post) they may now be capping the regular Queue tickets at 10,000, after which they hand out secondary “B” tickets that do not guarantee entry.

UPDATE: It’s possible that this ‘B Queue’ system is only in place for very busy days, because I just watched a TikTok from someone who had a regular Queue Ticket in the 11,000s for Day 3.

So, when do you need to arrive at the Wimbledon Queue to ensure you’re in that top 10,000?

Based on personal experience and posts made from Queuers on X (formerly Twitter), these were the rough queue numbers and arrival times for the Queue of Day One at Wimbledon 2024:

• First 10: Friday afternoon, as per this post (despite the fact that official websites said no queueing would be permitted until Sunday at 2pm)
• First 50: Saturday afternoon, according to some lovely friends we made in the luggage drop-off queue, who arrived on Saturday just after 1pm 
• Low 100s: Sunday morning at 8am, according to this post
• Low 1000s: Sunday evening – we arrived at 9pm and got 1220
• 1500s: Monday morning at 3:30am, according to this post
• 2500s: 5am
• 3700s: 6am
• 6600s: 7am
• 8300s: 8:06am
• 9000th: 9am
• Over 10000 by 11.30

NOTE: If you want on-the-ground updates, this X account shares updates from those currently in the Queue.

So, realistically, you should aim to be there before 10am to maximize your chance at a Grounds Pass.

Keep in mind though that the later you arrive, the longer you’ll spend in the Queue while the tournament is happening, so ideally you’ll want to get there as early as possible so that your time in the Queue takes place before the matches start, rather than waste tennis time in the Queue.

UPDATE: I initially wrote these recommendations based on my Day 1 experience. It’s very possible this day was simply busier than others. I’ve now seen some people who have reported about queuing later in the afternoon and getting in shortly after, like this Tiktoker who only queued for 40 minutes on Day 3 after entering at 2:45pm (11,000 ish Queue Card). So just know that there’s no one size fits all recommendation, but getting there early if possible is never a bad idea.

What to Bring to the Wimbledon Queue

Alright, now for the important question: what should you bring to the Wimbledon Queue? Here is a quick packing list for you:

• IMPORTANT: Portable charger and charging cable
• Camping gear (e.g. tent, sleeping bags, camping chairs, pillows) if sleeping overnight
• Something comfortable to sit on (e.g. blanket, mat, camping chair)
• Plenty of layers, including 1 waterproof layer (and/or umbrella) and a warm layer (e.g. fleece) just in case
• A hat and sunglasses
• Comfortable shoes
• Earplugs or noise cancelling headphones
• A refillable water bottle
• Snacks, food, and drinks
• Canned coffee or energy drink (if you need it! Because the coffee queues are long)
• Entertainment (e.g. deck of cards, a book, content pre-downloaded on Netflix)

Does that sound like too much to bring? Stressed about what to do with it all when you want to go inside for all the tennis?

Don’t worry, there are facilities for you to leave any luggage that you don’t want to bring into the tournament (more on this below).

Where to Leave Luggage When Doing the Wimbledon Queue

One of the main questions from Queue first timers is “where do I leave my stuff?”

Don’t stress – they’ve thought of this!

At the tournament, there are four official left luggage stations, but the main one for Queue goers is Left Luggage A, located in Wimbledon Park, close to where everyone is camping. Here, you can drop off any camping equipment and large bags up to a carry-on suitcase size for a fee (£5 for large bags/camping equipment, and £1 for other bags).

You are then given tickets for each item so you can come back and collect them later.

This Left Luggage facility opens at 5:30am and closes one hour after the end of the final match of the day. While crowds and queues leaving Wimbledon can often feel quite long, this should be enough time for your to collect your belongings.

What happens if you don’t make it back in time? I asked the Left Luggage staff about this and they said it’s very rare for any bags to be left over at the end of the day, but if there is anything left, it will go to the Lost Property Office for you to claim before the end of the tournament.

I strongly urge you to head to Left Luggage A as soon as it opens, because when this Left Luggage facility is full, the protocol is for you to use one of the other Left Luggage facilities instead… The catch is however that these facilities are located much further along in the queue, so you want to avoid this as much as possible, otherwise you’ll be stuck holding all your camping gear and stuff.

As an example, on my day, we were woken up at 5am, and we didn’t reach Left Luggage B in the Queue until about 9am.

… You definitely don’t want to be holding your tent for four hours, so go to Left Luggage A as soon as you can! There, you can enjoy yet another Queue (which will be a happy recurring theme of your Wimbledon experience).

NOTE: According to official Wimbledon restrictions,” all ticket holders and guests should pack their personal items in a bag which is no more than 40cm x 30cm x 30cm (16″ x 12″ x 12″)”, so anything exceeding this size does need to be checked in before you go into the tournament grounds.

My Experience at the Wimbledon Queue 

Alright, now the bit I’ve been promising all along – the part with time stamps on when I arrived and got in!

Here is a rough time breakdown of my experience, bearing in mind timings can be drastically different depending on the day, especially leading up to the later days of the tournament:

• 9pm: Entered Wimbledon Park through the main park gate 
• 9:10pm: Found the end of the queue (Queue Section K5) and obtained queue tickets (#01220 for me!)
• 9:30pm: Set up tent and chairs for the evening, ordering pizza in the process
• 10:06pm: Friend came back from picking up pizza, only to find the side gate at Revelstoke Road closed, forcing her to walk around
• 10:30pm: Stewards started walking around to remind people to start being quiet – though they didn’t enforce it too much – only if you were speaking too loud, you’d get a gentle warning
• 11:45pm: Went to sleep 
• 5:10am: Wakeup call from stewards, started to pack things up
• 6:30am: Walked over to the Luggage Drop A section, were told by multiple stewards that it was filling up by that point so it may be smarter to try one of the other Luggage Drops later on. Stubbornly, we persisted 
• 7:07am: Reached the front of Luggage Stop A, deposited out bags and returned to our spot in the Queue
• 7:18am: Queue started to move 
• 7:58am: Proceeded towards next Queue area (by the food trucks), past Queue Section K4
• 8:24am: Queue continues – steward scanned our Wimbledon QR codes and proceeded into a new area with the first photo opp of the day 
• 8:34am: Stewards came through with wristbands – by then Central Court and No 1 Court wristbands were already gone, but we got No 2 Court wristbands (No 201), then another steward hole punched our Queue Ticket (I assume to invalidate it)
• 9:38am: Entered the Ticket Purchase area and got our No 2 Court Tickets, where they snipped our wristbands (again, I assume to invalidate it)
• 9:46am: Walked into the Queue Village and loaded up on freebies
• 10:45: Entered the actual Wimbledon grounds, passing through a bag check before entering 
• 11:01am: Entered No 2 Court, ready for the first match of the day! 

Overall, the Queue is a really lovely and communal experience! It seemed like everyone was really in it together and (thanks to the Queue Number system I think), nobody turned against each other in any way. It went as smooth as I could have imagined, and if anything, my only regret was I didn’t come earlier to enjoy more of the camping experience.

Tips for Surviving the Wimbledon Queue

Alright, ready to conquer the Queue for yourself? Here are some tips I’d recommend based on my experience in 2024 (bearing in mind things might change again in subsequent years, so use these tips with caution depending on when you’re reading this!)

NOTE: This list of tips is specifically for the Wimbledon Queue. If you’d like more tips on attending Wimbledon as a first timer, with tips for once you get inside, be sure to check out my full Wimbledon for First Timers Guide.

1. Download the Wimbledon app 

I believe this is now mandatory as they scan your myWimbledon ID on the way in, so make sure you have it downloaded in advance, with an account registered so you have a myWimbledon ID.

This will also be used in the (new for 2024) virtual queue for resale tickets, so it’s definitely a good idea to have it ahead of your arrival.

2. Camp overnight if you can

If you want any hope of getting a show court ticket, then I’d say camping overnight is the way to go. As someone who isn’t particularly outdoorsy, I know it sounds awful, but I was super surprised by just how pleasant the camping experience was. In fact, I’d say it was better than a lot of paid campsites I’ve been to.

First off – the toilet facilities are excellent and cleaned regularly, so you don’t need to worry about that.

There’s also…

• Food options on-site (as well as the possibility to bring your own food/drinks in, or get delivery)
• Free water refill stations
• Left luggage facilities for your gear the next day.

Arriving at 9pm, we were among the final campers for our queue, with queue number 1220. So yes, I’d say it’s really worth it and makes the experience more fun. Truthfully, the people who arrived after us and chose not to camp (instead just sitting hours in the cold on blankets) looked miserable. I feel like at least getting some sleep in a tent preps you better for the long day ahead.

3. Bring snacks and food 

This is completely allowed and something I highly recommend not only to save money, but also time, especially snacks and drinks.

While there are food trucks on the Queue grounds, the individual queues for these honestly looked like a nightmare. While they weren’t open on Sunday evening (I assume because the tournament hadn’t officially started yet), I heard some people say on Monday morning that they waited over an hour in the queue for coffee… so don’t rely on that and make sure you have some supplies of your own, especially some backup caffeine for the morning (like a pre-packaged iced coffee or energy drink).

Another option is to order delivery to the park gates (or more cost effectively) to pick up some takeout instead, especially since there are quite a few options around the park… assuming you’re with people who can watch your tent/stuff!

NOTE: While there are limits on how much alcohol you can bring into the actual event (generally no spirits but one bottle of wine or champagne up to 750mL, as well as two cans of beer), I don’t believe there is a limit for the Queue, based on the fact that nobody was checking. It’s of course against the Queue ‘Rules of Conduct’ to get wasted and disturb the peace, but if you want more than two beers to pass the time, I believe that’s fine, and the 2 beer limit only applies to bringing into the actual tournament.

4. Pack earplugs or noise cancelling headphones

While nobody was overly loud or disruptive in the Queue, you are in such close quarters with others (in not-at-all soundproof tents) that you’ll inevitably hear your neighbours, even if they’re whispering… so if you want any hope of a good sleep, make sure you have a way to block that noise out!

5. Get there ASAP for the luggage drop

In 2024, Luggage Drop A opened at 5:30am and I would recommend heading over there as soon as you can. We took our sweet time, having a bite to eat, etc. which meant we didn’t head over until 6:30am, at which point stewards were repeatedly telling us the storage facilities were almost full, so we’d be better off holding onto our bags and trying one of the other Left Luggage facilities further in the queue.

To be honest, I think this was more because the queue would begin to move again around 7am, and they wanted to make sure people were back in time… though that didn’t make it any less stressful at the time!

In the end, there was still plenty of space for bags by the time we made it to the front, just after 7am.

6. Arrive before the first tube 

This tip is more for those who are planning on just arriving to the Queue early in the morning, rather than camp. If you choose this route, your best bet is getting there before the first Tube of the day arrives as many people will be arriving then (you can check timetables here).

Based on my quick search in 2024 though, the first trains of the day to arrive at Southfields are…

• Monday – Friday: 6:57am
• Saturdays and Public Holidays: 7:08am
• Sundays: 8:08am

So depending on which day you come, getting in before these times would be in your best interest.

7. Scour Reddit and X for the latest word

While I’ve tried to make this guide as thorough as possible, the truth is things seem to change year-to-year at Wimbledon, and sometimes even during the tournament, so I’d recommend supplementing this guide with extra research on Reddit and X.

In fact, Reddit is where I was able to find the £10 parking I mentioned earlier… and based on how empty the parking lot was when we left/entered, very few others knew about it, so that’s a huge win! The Wimbledon subreddit here is a good place to start with searching.

BONUS: Run to Ticket Resale ASAP upon entering the grounds

New for 2024 was the introduction of a virtual queue system which I unfortunately did not find out about until it was much too late… so don’t be silly like me and make sure to join the Ticket Resale queue as soon as possible.

In brief, Wimbledon gives ticket holders the option to give their show court tickets back when they leave. These returned tickets are then resold at a lower price (in 2024: £15 for Centre Court, £10 for No 1 Court and No 2 Court) for charity from 3pm onwards.

Once upon a time, getting a chance at these resale tickets meant standing in yet another queue upon arrival. In 2024 however, there is a new virtual queue. All you need to do is proceed to the Ticket Resale station above Court 18. From there, they scan your myWimbledon ID which unlocks a new Ticket Resale button on your app’s homepage. From there, you can select which court you want to join the virtual queue for, how many tickets you want (max two per person) and then you get assigned a virtual queue number.

When you are at the front of this virtual queue, you get a notification and have 20 minutes to return to the ticket office to secure your resale tickets. So, as you can see, it’s definitely in your best interest to run to this Resale area as soon as you can to get your spot in the virtual queue…. especially if you only have a Grounds Pass.

I Hope You Enjoyed This Guide to the Wimbledon Queue!

Let me know in the comments if you have any more questions.