The High Park neighbourhood in Toronto’s west-end is like a little bit of England far from England. The streets are adorned with English Cottage and Arts and Crafts style houses with lush gardens and majestic trees. Nestled into the heart of this neighbourhood on Indian Road is a modest red brick Edwardian building that is the home of the High Park Club  founded in 1911. This club is unique in that it includes the only two grass tennis courts in the City of Toronto. These are the closest thing to a Wimbledon grass court you will find in the City.
On a beautiful sunny day in early June, I was fortunate to arrange a match with Mike the social convenor for the lawn tennis. Mike pointed out the subtleties of the grass game. It took me awhile to adjust from the hard courts and clay courts that I normally play on. The ball does not bounce as high so you really have to “bend your knees” to manage your groundstrokes. But other than that it is still tennis albeit in a lush garden setting. I could not help but think of Wimbledon and my heroes: Borg, McEnroe, Connors, Samprass, Agassi, Federer, Djokovic and Nadal as I battled through some long rallies with Mike who played the court like a virtuoso.
The tennis courts are perfectly situated at the back of the club building and feature a main floor gallery and a spectacular upper floor gallery. I asked Mike if any noteworthy individuals had played at the club and he confirmed that international recording artist Seal had arranged a game here when he was in Toronto. Daniel Nestor a Canadian tennis legend and former Wimbledon doubles champion player used the High Park Club as a tuneup for Wimbledon.
The High Park grass courts were originally used for lawn bowling and converted to tennis in 1984. Membership is capped at 110 persons as the grass courts can only take so much wear and tear. Members tend to renew their fees year after year and as such there may be only five to ten new memberships allowed each year with an average waiting list of a few hundred. It can take five years, sometimes longer, to obtain a membership. There is a $1500 plus hst initiation fee with 2023 annual tennis only fees of $445 plus hst. There are other incidental fees as well which are explained on the club’s website highparkclub.com
In addition to tennis; High Park Club facilities include 5 sheets for curling, a banquet hall with indoor and balcony seating, a full-service bar and multiple lounges. The many display cases at the club are stuffed with trophies, some more than 100 years old. In keeping up with the trends and the times the curling sheets have been converted to Pickleball courts for the summer season. The Pickleball courts have proved to be very popular and were all being used during my visit. Still it is the beautiful grass tennis courts that make High Park Club a unique and cherished community club.
