When Mawson designed Central Park in 1928, four grass courts already existed on the southern side of the Home Park stadium where the Home Park Tennis Club played, and there was a grass court at Higher Swilly Farm which appears to have been made by the Cundy family before they left in 1927. Unlike the Home Park courts, the one at Higher Swilly was directly managed by the Council and, for many years, it was booked for the season by the Devonport YMCA Tennis Club. In addition to these, Plymouth Cricket Club had earmarked space for six grass courts at their new ground at Peverell Park.
Mawson judged that another sixteen courts would be required to cater for tennis’s enormous popularity and his first proposal was to extend the Home Park courts southwards, across Cottage Field to where the clock tower is today. However, there were concerns that this layout could conflict with the crowds on Argyle match days, so instead he selected the area between today’s Life Centre and Britannia Way where there was space for just eight new courts. They were arranged in pairs on either side of a central walkway which was lined with flower borders to soften the wire fences. A small rose garden was also incorporated along the Discovery Way frontage to break up the harsh line of the boundary.
The Central Park courts were bombed during the war although it is difficult to know how much damage was caused as tennis was being played there soon afterwards. The courts at Higher Home Park and Higher Swilly were also lost during the war years. The former was requisitioned and concreted over for a US Navy food store, whilst the latter was taken over by a new depot and nursery for the Council’s parks department.
The courts were remade and field drains renewed between 1953 and 1955. Two courts were surfaced with porous asphalt, presumably because they were the ones most damaged in the war, whilst the other courts were remade with crushed stone or brick. Asphalt was cheaper to maintain than the other surfaces which required regular brushing and rolling, something that park keepers would have done as well as collecting playing fees.
The decision in 1969 to build a sports hall over four of the tennis courts is perplexing as the Central Park courts continued to be well used and their receipts provided about half of the total income from all the Council’s courts. Any objections appear to have been muted and perhaps tennis players were tempted by the prospect of having two indoor courts. The Mayflower Centre was extended during the 1970s and the remaining four tennis courts were lost when a five-a-side football hall was built there in 1978. Incredible though it may seem, there would be no public tennis courts in Central Park for the next forty-one years.