This real tennis court was built in 1680 by Charles de Castellane, a Marseille nobleman, in the "New City" created under Louis XIV. Ten years earlier, the ramparts of the city had been pushed toward the east and south and the ancient suburbs and gardens were redefined to accommodate the new road system, which partly traversed large properties. It is on one of these properties, at the site of a wax factory, that the real tennis court was constructed. It was originally isolated, but then gradually absorbed into the urban landscape that developed during the 18th century. In 1750, a building was constructed on the square that separated it from the street, thus hiding its facade.

The playing court is easily identifiable at ground floor level and the study of its upper parts was facilitated by the homogeneity of the mortar used in the walls.  Its principal component is marine sand, a rare material that must be rinsed before it is used as the salt can hinder its cohesion.
The removal of recent plaster layers revealed parts of the walls preserved to their original height of 10.5 metres. The wooden frame also appears to be original.
The real tennis court measures 11 m by 31 m. The penthouse walls consist of two walls side by side, the one on the interior, 5.5 m high, probably supported galleries. The other comprised a succession of blind arcades rising right up to the stands, whose jambs, topped by pillars, then supported the trusses of the frame. There were seven of these and they were at least 12 m high. Between the pillars, 14 windows, 4.5 m high by 2 m wide, were fenced in and equipped with a guard rail behind the stands. There was an entrance in the facade (south gable wall). Other entrances, which permitted access to the lateral courts, the billiard room and the salon, were also identified.

The walls comprised roughly cut stones covered with plaster. The only exception is the "bricole" wall, which is an essential element of the game. Since this is the wall on which the ball rebounded, its face comprised cut and carefully adjusted soft limestone blocks to a height of 2.5 metres. It is particular in that is has an angled buttress, called a tambour; the axial asymmetry of the court is characteristic of the game real tennis in which the opposed courts are different, only one being used at a time.
No part of the floor is preserved as the ground was later lowered. Lateral galleries could nonetheless be identified on the floor and against the side walls. These corridors, destroyed when the court was transformed into a theatre, had a ceiling against which the ball bounced.

The architecture of the real tennis court of rue Thubaneau is canonical: it corresponds to the model described by Garsault a century later, in 1776, in L'art du Paumier-Raquettier et de la Paume. The only exception is in the materials employed, the author preferring the use of wood for the upper parts, as is the custom in northern France.
The real tennis court of rue Thubaneau is identical to those of Aix-en-Provence and Toulon, both of which have disappeared. It is thus the last one preserved in Marseille, and, more widely, in the Provence region.
Its study has revealed a local adaptation of a national architectural norm, particularly in the use of stone throughout the entire height of the building and cut stone for the "bricole" wall, an essential element of the game. Considered to be exceptional, this wall has undergone conservation measures by the Bâtiments de France and will be integrated in a future museum.