The All England Lawn Tennis Club’s museum building is to receive a makeover, after plans were approved by Merton Council.

Currently, the building contains the museum as well as a ticket office, entrance turnstiles for the championships, the official shop, meeting rooms, a storage facility and staff offices.

But the museum building is considered to detract from the club’s “tennis in an English country garden” ethos and lacks “distinctly Wimbledon” design features.

The work will involve the building being remodelled and a new floor being built.

The club said in its application the design had been inspired by “everything that the heritage of Wimbledon represents”.

Green will feature as the prominent colour of the building, in keeping with the lawns and other structures on site.

And a planter will run along the outside of one of the upper levels, allowing the building to be included in the trailing plants and flower displays for which the championships are famous.

In the application, the club said: “Among the tennis fans are also a number of horticultural aficionados, and with the second-most talked about subject each year being the floral displays, this building needs to take part.”

Among the prominent features will be the roof, whose slight curve downward to the middle has been scaled to reflect the dip of a singles tennis net.

Council officers said in their report they believe the design is “of high quality and would vastly improve the appearance of the existing building”.

Work is expected to begin in August 2018.