According to research by Dr Howard Colvin, described by Lord Aberdare (The Willis Faber Book of Tennis & Rackets, Quiller Press, 1998), the original wooden court at Hampton Court was built before 1532. The present court there was built on the site of this wooden court by Charles I in about 1625.
And:
Roger Morgan writes: "The oldest court still standing
is that at Falkland Palace which was built in 1539. . . . The tennis
court
at Hampton Court Palace is the next in terms of age which still exists,
and was built in 1625." page 98 in Tennis: The Development of the
European
Ball Game, Ronaldson Publications, Oxford, 1995.
And:
Kathryn McNicoll (sister of former World Champion Chris Ronaldson) in
her excellent booklet Real Tennis
(Shire, 2005) agrees that Falkland has "...the oldest court of all...".
However:
Surprisingly, Heiner Gillmeister disagrees, and states
that the oldest court in use is at Hampton Court (Tennis A Cultural
History, Ronaldson Publications, Oxford & Leicester University
Press, 1997). Needless to say that
Hampton
Court's website makes the same claim.
So:
It seems likely that the disagreement over the oldest
court is due to the fact that the (now demolished) 1532 court at
Hampton
Court was older than the court at Falkland Palace (1539). The present
court
at Hampton Court was not built until 1625.
Finally:
The Royal Tennis Court at Hampton Court Palace, where
tennis has been played almost uninterrupted since King Henry VIII first
built a court there, is regarded as the world's centre or "home" of
real
tennis, in the same way as St Andrews is regarded as the "home" of
golf.
(Tennis
was not first played at Hampton Court, nor was golf first played at St
Andrews).