The original "Prince's Club" was founded in 1853 by George and James Prince, owners of a wine and cigar shop in
Regent Street, and it opened in 1854. Located on
Henry Holland's Pavilion estate, between the current Lennox Gardens,
Cadogan Square and
Hans Place, an area covering about 13 acres, it was originally a members-only gentlemen's
rackets and
real tennis club. Gentlemen wishing to join the club had to be proposed and seconded by two of its members. The members were allowed to introduce two friends, who were charged double the rate if they played. Another club rule stated that "no hazard, dice, or game of chance be allowed in this Club". In 1864 the club was incorporated as Prince's Racquets & Tennis Club Company Ltd. Another six rackets courts were later added around the main court with varying sizes, some built wider for doubles matches. Prince's Club was the first club to install such a bath, just weeks after London's first. In 1871 the
Prince's Cricket Ground was added, laid out on the site of Cattleugh's nursery gardens, as well as a
croquet lawn, followed by
lawn tennis and lastly a roller-skating rink which was used in the winter for ice skating. The cricket ground was also used by
South of England and Gentlemen of the South. Several
Gentlemen v Players fixtures were played there, the first taking place in 1873. In 1878 the
touring Australian team played two matches on the ground. The club's heyday was in the early 1870s; it had over 1,000 members in 1873. The Prince's Club was one of the earliest lawn tennis locations after the sport was introduced in the mid-1870s. The club had two lawn tennis courts and organised open and
handicap events. When the
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), in its capacity as the governing body for rackets and real tennis, issued the first unified rules for lawn tennis on 29 May 1875 they were not universally adhered to and the Prince's Club, among others, stuck to playing on rectangular courts instead of the prescribed hourglass-shaped courts. It held an
open tournament in 1881 which leading players
Ernest Renshaw,
William Renshaw and
Herbert Lawford competed. William Renshaw won the tournament while his brother Ernest won the handicap event. The following year, 1882, Ernest Renshaw won the open tournament. From 1881 through 1883 the club was the location of the
varsity lawn tennis matches. Since the second half of the 1870s areas of the club's ground were gradually repurposed for building activities, enabled by the
Cadogan and Hans Place Improvements Act 1874. A road was built on the southern part of the ground in the winter of 1876–1877. Part of the northern ground at Hans Road was lost in 1877 and the two lawn tennis courts had to be relocated. In the winter of 1877–1878 additional parts of the ground were used for building projects. In the summer of 1886 only the main rackets court and one of the tennis courts were left, and when its lease expired and its last buildings were demolished in the fall of 1886 the club closed in 1887. ==New Prince's Club==