Engineering group SCX has been selected by The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) to build a second retractable roof at Wimbledon's No.1 Court.

The Sheffield-based company will install the roof as part of a £70 million redevelopment at No. 1 Court and completion is scheduled for 2019.

Features include installing around 220 electro-mechanical devices (including motors) along with a control system capable of working to accuracies of a fraction of a millimetre. In addition, the roof is divided into two sections with a total of 10 bays. Each bay is clamped on either side by prismatic steel trusses, with the end of each truss supported on a wheeled bogie that moves along rails that are fixed to the new superstructure of the court.


Overall, SCX is responsible for design and supply of all the mechanical and electrical equipment, and also for the construction of all the components that make up the moving sections of the roof.

The majority of construction, assembly and testing work will be carried out at SCX's new Tyler Street facility in Sheffield.

Group Managing Director, Simon Eastwood, said: "We are very proud to have built the original retractable roof on Centre Court, so to be chosen by the AELTC to work on No.1 Court is a real honour. SCX is now one of the leading builders of kinetic architecture in the UK and this contract has taken our order book to record levels."

(LM/MH)