Liverpool now has floating padel courts on a working dock, a nine-court facility from a former Bundesliga manager in planning, and several dedicated clubs already taking bookings across the city. No other UK city outside London has a padel story quite like this one – and it’s only getting started.
Here’s everything that’s open, what’s coming, and what it costs to play.
Liverpool’s padel venues – open now
Three venues are taking bookings across the city, with very different characters.
| Venue | Area | Courts | Indoor/Outdoor | Booking | Pay-to-play? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ignite Padel Speke | Near Liverpool John Lennon Airport | 6 (expanding to 17) | Indoor (championship) | Playtomic | Yes |
| Liverpool Cricket Club (Game4Padel) | Aigburth | 3 | Outdoor | Matchi / Game4Padel app | Yes (membership or casual) |
| Vibora Liverpool Waters (floating courts) | Princes Dock | 2 (3rd planned later in 2026) | Floating outdoor + clubhouse | Playtomic | Yes – £55/60min |
Ignite Padel Speke is the city’s largest established indoor venue. Six championship-standard courts with a viewing gallery and coffee lounge, located near Liverpool John Lennon Airport. This is the venue for players who want proper indoor padel without travelling to Manchester – Playtomic bookings, professional-grade glass, and a second Ignite venue at Cheshire Oaks already open suggesting the operator has found solid demand across Merseyside. A major expansion is underway too: Ignite is growing Speke from 10 courts to 17, taking the site from 27,500 to 56,000 sq ft, with completion due in August 2026. On paper, that would make Speke the largest single padel site in the whole of the UK.
Liverpool Cricket Club in Aigburth is the social heart of the city’s padel scene. Three outdoor courts, bookable through the Matchi/Game4Padel app, with a padel-only membership option and free racket hire for members. The club has built a WhatsApp community for player coordination – the kind of grassroots structure that turns first-timers into regulars. If you’re a beginner looking for regular games and a social group, this is the easiest entry point in Liverpool.
The floating courts at Princes Dock deserve their own section – and they get one below.
What’s opening soon
Two more venues are in the pipeline, and between them they would more than double Liverpool’s court count.
The Padel Club Liverpool Riverside at Brunswick Dock is targeting an early 2026 opening. Eight courts in total – five indoor plus three outdoor under canopy cover – with game cameras installed on the indoor courts so you can review your play, a cocktail bar, and pickleball courts for those looking for variety. The venue is on Atlantic Way by the dock; if it opens on schedule, it becomes the largest padel facility in Liverpool. The Padel Club already operates venues elsewhere in the UK, so this isn’t a first-time project.
Padel FC in Wavertree is still awaiting planning approval from Liverpool City Council. Nine courts (six indoor, three sheltered outdoor), a café, retail space, changing rooms, and sustainability features including solar panels, air source heating, and EV charging points. When it opens – and the community appetite for it is clear, with 98% support in local consultations – it will be a significant venue. Details below.
The floating courts at Princes Dock
Britain’s first floating padel courts opened to the public on 26 September 2026 at Princes Dock, part of the Liverpool Waters development on the north docks. The venue is called Vibora Liverpool Waters.
Two floating courts are open now, with a third planned later in 2026 alongside an extension to the waterfront clubhouse. The clubhouse itself has food and drink, social space overlooking the dock, and retail. Courts run 7am to 10pm, seven days a week, and bookings go through Playtomic – a 60-minute court costs £55. Vibora sold 75 “Founding Membership” spots ahead of opening with priority booking and added perks; those are gone, but standard individual and corporate memberships remain open alongside pay-and-play. The courts sit on the dock itself, not the open Mersey.
Liverpool now has a padel facility that is physically impossible to replicate anywhere else in Britain. Other cities can build indoor clubs in warehouses. Nobody else can put padel courts on water at a working dock with a city skyline as the backdrop.
The floating courts are a legitimate venue with a proper clubhouse and a waterfront location that city-centre courts can’t match. For players who’ve been to Helsinki or Dubai where floating courts already exist, this will feel familiar. For everyone else, it’s something worth playing just to say you have. For the full opening story, see our full write-up on the Vibora Liverpool Waters opening.
Note: Vibora’s floating venue is at Princes Dock only. It has no connection to Ignite Padel Speke, a separate indoor venue near Liverpool John Lennon Airport under different ownership – the two are sometimes confused online, but they’re unrelated projects at opposite ends of the city.
Jurgen Klopp’s Padel FC: what we know
Padel FC in Wavertree is the most talked-about padel project in Liverpool – and the most misunderstood. The venue is co-founded by Jurgen Klopp and his son Marc, alongside Liverpool-based investors, and it is planning-stage only. There is no opening date. Planning approval has been submitted but not granted.
What we know: nine courts total, six indoor and three sheltered outdoor. The site is on Liverpool City Council land in Wavertree, replacing underused tennis courts. The proposal includes a café, retail, changing facilities, and the sustainability features you’d expect from a project tied to someone as publicly conscious about these things as Klopp. Community consultations showed 98% support.
What we don’t know: when (or whether) planning will be approved, when construction would begin, or when the venue would open.
Klopp has previous with padel – he founded a club in Berlin before his time at Liverpool, and Padel FC was built on that model. The Wavertree project is a serious proposal with serious backing, and if it comes through, it will be one of the best padel venues in the north of England. But it is not open, and there’s no point in putting it in your diary yet.
Keep an eye on the planning portal if you want to follow the timeline.
How much does padel cost in Liverpool?
Court hire in Liverpool sits in roughly the same range as other UK cities outside London.
Ignite Padel Speke charges around £20–40 per hour for court hire depending on time slot. Playtomic prices vary by peak/off-peak, so off-peak mid-week sessions tend to come in at the lower end of that range.
Liverpool Cricket Club offers the most flexible pricing. Casual court hire is available through Game4Padel, or you can take out a padel-only membership at £140 per year (roughly £11.67/month) or £15/month on a rolling basis. The membership includes 14 days’ advance booking priority, access to sauna and showers, bar discounts, and free racket hire. For anyone planning to play regularly, the membership pays for itself quickly.
Vibora Liverpool Waters charges £55 for a 60-minute court booking through Playtomic – the highest rate in the city, reflecting the waterfront setting and clubhouse. Individual and corporate memberships are available, though full pricing for those hasn’t been published.
The Padel Club Liverpool Riverside and Padel FC (once open) will likely price at a premium given their facilities, but no confirmed pricing has been released.
For context on what padel costs elsewhere in the UK, or how Liverpool compares to cities like Derby or Birmingham, the padel vs tennis guide has a broader look at the cost picture across both sports. Players travelling across the north might also find padel courts in Sheffield useful – Club de Padel at Cannon Brewery and Play Padel Abbeydale are both within an hour’s drive and offer a different mix of venues.
Getting started in Liverpool
If you’ve never played before, Liverpool Cricket Club is the most beginner-friendly option. Free racket hire, a WhatsApp community for finding games, coaching available, and the Game4Padel app for booking. You can turn up without your own kit and leave with a sense of whether padel is for you.
For your first session logistics – what to wear, how scoring works, what to expect in your first rally – the social padel guide covers the format most clubs use to help newcomers find games without awkward cold-calls. And if you’re trying to find regular partners once you’ve got a feel for the sport, the finding people to play with guide has the practical steps. Once you’ve played a few sessions, how to choose a padel club is worth reading if you’re deciding whether to join Liverpool Cricket Club as a member or stay pay-and-play.
One format worth knowing about early: the Americano. Most Liverpool clubs run Americano sessions for mixed-ability players – everyone rotates partners throughout the session, so you’re never stuck in a mismatched game. It’s the best way to meet the regular players at a club and get a sense of the standard before committing to a fixed-partner ladder.
For committed beginners, the social ladder at Liverpool Cricket Club is worth investigating once you’ve played a handful of sessions. The WhatsApp community is how most regular players at the club coordinate games – it’s more active than the official app booking for informal play.
For court guides in other parts of the UK, browse the full directory of towns we cover.