Lord's, the centre of world cricket.

The Hambledon Cricket Club played in Hampshire, until the club moved to Dorset Fields in Marylebone becoming Maryle­bone Cricket Club/MCC in 1787. The first match took place that year and by 1788, the club had pub­lished its first Code of Cricket Laws.

 Lord's pavilion, opened 1890

Lord’s first cricket ground, owned by Marylebone Cricket Club, was named after its founder, Thomas Lord, who leased the Dorset ground and ran the club for 12 years. It closed in 1811 and Lord moved the turf and all the equipment to the second ground in North Bank.

The third Lord’s Ground moved to the current ground in St John’s Wood in London in 1814, which became the centre of world cricket. The initial match in the new ground took place that very year. And with the growing success of the game, Thomas Lord built the pavil­ion and refreshment stalls. Unfortunately the pavilion was destroyed by a fire in 1825.

After the fire, the new replace­ment pavilion was rebuilt and became one of the most famous land­marks in world cricket. This second pav­ilion at Lord’s Cricket Ground was built in 1889 and opened in 1890 at great cost, just in time for the new cricket season. Designed by Thomas and Frank Verity, note the brick with ornate pink terracotta facings and the long, two storey centre section with raked, cover­ed seating. Above, between the 2 end pavilions capped with pyramidal roofs, were ornate wrought and cast iron lanterns. Like the rest of Lord’s, this Victorian pavilion was owned by Marylebone Crick­et Club-MCC and served the England national cricket team.

The first International Test match played at Lord's was between Eng­land and Australia in 1884; Aus­t­ral­ia lost. Australia's first test win at the grounds was in 1888.

 The Long Room

Until 1999 women weren't allowed to enter the pavilion in play, due to the MCC’s gender-based membership policy.

The Victorian building was grade II listed under the Planning Act 1990, am­ended for its special architectural or hist­or­ic int­erest. With con­servation in mind, the building was closed in 2004 for a major ren­ovation costing £8.2 million. The pavilion seating was extended to the upper levels and the Long Room was refurbished.

Players get into their Whites in the dressing room, and parade through the Long Room en route to the crick­et field. The pav­ilion was re-decorated with elegant Vict­orian feat­ur­es and the walls were lined with paint­ings of famous cricketers and ad­ministrators, from the C18th until today. For the few non-English players who have had their port­rait placed here, it was always a great hon­our. Only four Australian cricketers have ever been honoured in this way, natur­al­ly the most important being Sir Don Bradman. He scored an epic 254 runs on this ground in 1930, a record which lasted for 60 years. If a player successfully scored a cent­ury or took five wickets in a Test innings, their names appeared on the honours board in the dressing rooms.

MCC members and guests have free access to the room, with views of the ground through impressive sash windows. Inside the pavil­ion is like an elegant pub, with different rooms attracting people who soc­­ial­ise and watch the cricket. When there is no game, the Long Room is avail­able on a private hire basis for conferences and cocktail parties.

The Media Centre at Lord’s was commissioned in time for the 1999 Cricket World Cup. I don’t understand the technical details so I am quoting the experts. It was the first all-aluminium, semi-monocoque structural system building in the world, built and fitted out in two boat yards, using revolutionary boat-building technol­ogy. The centre stands 15 metres above the ground and its support comes from the structure around its two lift shafts, the same height as the Pavilion on the opposite side of the cricket ground. The lower tier of the centre accommodates 100+ jour­nalists, and the top tier has radio and tv commentary box­es.

The new media centre was designed by Czech architect Jan Kaplický. Kaplický considered this media centre his favourite creation because it was both a revolutionary design and an achieve­ment that users loved. In 1999 Lord’s media centre won the Roy­al Ins­tit­ute of British Architects/RIBA Stirling Prize, Britain’s most prestigious arch­it­ectural award. In 2000 Jan Kaplický became an Honourable Fellow of RIBA and in 2001 he won the World Architecture Awards.

The MCC Museum was originally opened by the Duke of Edinburgh, as a war memorial to cricketers who died in WW2. The centrepiece is the story of the por­celain Ashes Urn (a gift to Lord Darnley from Melbourne ladies dur­ing England’s 1882-3 tour of Australia) and an exquisite silver urn from manager Frank Laver’s successful tour of England in 1909. Famous cricketer Sir Ponsonby Fane ransacked all London’s art dealer shops, looking for crick­et prints and paint­ings, and building up the art collection. But now the picture gall­ery has many different types of exhibitions eg special bats and a mas­sive coll­ection of textiles: blazers, ties, caps, badges and cricket outfits. The newest MCC Museum was opened in Nov 2006.

 Media Centre

Warner Stand

Despite the renovated pavilions, the modern ground can only hold 30,000 spec­t­ators, as compared to the Melbourne Cricket Ground with 100,024 seats. Thus increases in capacity and con­venience were needed fairly quickly. The Warner Stand was the first phase of MCC’s ambitious redevelopment of the western corn­er. When it opened in May 2017, there were 2,656 seats on two tiers on a steeper gradient than before, greatly improving sightlines.

At Lord’s Cricket Ground, each stand that surrounds the pitch had a separate id­entity, totally unconnected to its neighbouring stands. I thought this was awful, but the designers saw it as their main architectural challenge.