Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a
cricket
Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
venue
A venue is the location at which an event takes place. It may refer to:
Locations
* Venue (law), the place a case is heard
* Financial trading venue, a place or system where financial transactions can occur
* Music venue, place used for a conce ...
in
St John's Wood
St John's Wood is a district in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden and the City of Westminster, London, England, about 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Historically the northern part of the Civil Parish#An ...
,
Westminster
Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...
. Named after its founder,
Thomas Lord
Thomas Lord (23 November 1755 – 13 January 1832) was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1787 to 1802. He made a brief comeback, playing in one further match in 1815. Overall, Lord made 90 known appearances ...
, it is owned by
Marylebone Cricket Club
The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...
(MCC) and is the home of
Middlesex County Cricket Club
Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Middlesex which has effectively been subsumed within the ceremonial ...
, the
England and Wales Cricket Board
The England and Wales Cricket Board, aka ECB, is the Sports governing body, national governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was formed on 1 January 1997 as a single governing body to combine the roles formerly fulfilled by the Test ...
(ECB), the
ICC Europe
ICC Europe is the International Cricket Council region responsible for administration of the sport of cricket in Europe. It is a subordinate body to the International Cricket Council (ICC). The organisation currently has 34 members, located in E ...
and, until August 2005, the
International Cricket Council
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global Sports governing body, governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England, and South Africa. In 1965, the body wa ...
(ICC). Lord's is widely referred to as the ''Home of Cricket'' and has the world's oldest sporting museum.
Lord's today is not on its original site; it is the third of three grounds that Lord established between 1787 and 1814. His first ground, now referred to as
Lord's Old Ground
Lord's Old Ground was a cricket venue in London that was established by Thomas Lord in 1787. It was used mainly by Marylebone Cricket Club for major matches until 1810, after which a dispute about rent caused Lord to relocate.
Matches
The firs ...
, was where
Dorset Square
Dorset Square is a garden square in Marylebone, London. All buildings fronting it are terraced houses and listed, in the mainstream (initial) category. It takes up the site of Lord's (MCC's) Old Cricket Ground, which lasted 23 years until the ...
now stands. His second ground,
Lord's Middle Ground
Lord's Middle Ground was a cricket venue in London that was established by Thomas Lord in 1811. It was used mainly by Marylebone Cricket Club for major matches until 1813, after which Lord was obliged to relocate because the land was requisiti ...
, was used from 1811 to 1813 before being abandoned to make way for the construction through its outfield of the
Regent's Canal
Regent's Canal is a canal across an area just north of central London, England. It provides a link from the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, north-west of Paddington Basin in the west, to the Limehouse Basin and the River Thames in ea ...
. The present Lord's ground is about north-west of the site of the Middle Ground. The ground can hold 31,100 spectators, the capacity having increased between 2017 and 2022 as part of MCC's ongoing redevelopment plans.
History
Background
Acting on behalf of members of the
White Conduit Club
The White Conduit Club (WCC) was a cricket club based on the northern fringes of London that existed from about 1782 until 1788. Although short-lived, it had considerable significance in the history of the game, as its members created the first ...
and backed against any losses by
George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea
George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea (4 November 1752 – 2 August 1826), was an English peer, army officer and cricketer who was an important figure in the history of cricket. His main contributions to the game were patronage and organisatio ...
and
Colonel Charles Lennox,
Thomas Lord
Thomas Lord (23 November 1755 – 13 January 1832) was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1787 to 1802. He made a brief comeback, playing in one further match in 1815. Overall, Lord made 90 known appearances ...
opened his
first ground in May 1787 on the site where
Dorset Square
Dorset Square is a garden square in Marylebone, London. All buildings fronting it are terraced houses and listed, in the mainstream (initial) category. It takes up the site of Lord's (MCC's) Old Cricket Ground, which lasted 23 years until the ...
now stands, on land leased from the
Portman Estate Portman may refer to:
* Portman (surname)
* Viscount Portman
Places
* Portmán, a town near Cartagena, Spain
* Orchard Portman, a village and civil parish in Somerset, England
* Portman Estate, 110 acres in Marylebone in London’s West End
* Por ...
. The White Conduit moved there from
Islington
Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...
, unhappy at the standard of the ground at
White Conduit Fields
White Conduit Fields in Islington was an early venue for cricket and several major matches are known to have been played there in the 18th century. It was the original home of the White Conduit Club, forerunner of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC ...
, soon afterwards and reconstituted themselves as
Marylebone Cricket Club
The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...
(MCC). It was thought that the establishment of a new ground would offer more exclusivity to its members, with White Conduit Fields considered too far away from fashionable
Oxford Street
Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running between Marble Arch and Tottenham Court Road via Oxford Circus. It marks the notional boundary between the areas of Fitzrovia and Marylebone to t ...
and the
West End.
The first match played at the new ground saw
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...
play
Essex
Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
.
In 1811, feeling obliged to relocate because of a rise in rent, Lord removed his turf and relaid it at
his second ground. This was short-lived because it lay on the route decided by
Parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
for the
Regent's Canal
Regent's Canal is a canal across an area just north of central London, England. It provides a link from the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, north-west of Paddington Basin in the west, to the Limehouse Basin and the River Thames in ea ...
, in addition to the ground being unpopular with patrons.
The "Middle Ground" was on the estate of the Eyre family, who offered Lord another plot nearby; and he again relocated his turf. This new ground was originally a
duck pond
A duck pond or duckpond is a pond for ducks and other waterfowl. Duck ponds provide habitats for waterfowl and other birds, who use the water to bathe in and drink.
Often, as in public parks, such ponds are artificial and ornamental in desig ...
on a hill in
St. John's Wood
St John's Wood is a district in the London Boroughs of Camden and the City of Westminster, London, England, about 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Historically the northern part of the ancient parish and Metropolitan Borough ...
, which gives rise to Lord's famous slope, which at the time was recorded as sloping down from north-west to south-east, though in actuality the slope is .
The new ground was opened in the 1814 season, with the MCC playing Hertfordshire in the first match on the ground on 22 June 1814.
Early history

A
tavern
A tavern is a type of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that ...
was built for Lord in 1813–14,
[Green 2010, p. 46] followed by a wooden
pavilion
In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings;
* It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...
in 1814.
First-class cricket
First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...
was first played on the present ground in July 1814, with the MCC playing
St John's Wood Cricket Club.
The first
century
A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c.
...
to be scored at the ground in first-class cricket was made by
Frederick Woodbridge (107) for
Epsom
Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain ...
against Middlesex, with Epsom's
Felix Ladbroke (116) recording the second century in the same match.
The annual
Eton v Harrow
The Eton v Harrow cricket match is an annual match between public school rivals Eton College and Harrow School. It is the oldest modern sporting rivalry between two schools, one of the longest-running annual sporting fixtures in the world and ...
match, which was first played on the Old Ground in 1805, returned to the present ground on 29 July 1818. From 1822, the fixture has been almost an annual event at Lord's.
Lord's witnessed the first double-century to be made in first-class cricket when
William Ward scored 278 for the MCC against
Norfolk
Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...
in 1820.
The original
pavilion
In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings;
* It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...
, which had recently been renovated at great expense,
was destroyed by fire following the first
Winchester
Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...
v
Harrow
Harrow may refer to:
Places
* Harrow, Victoria, Australia
* Harrow, Ontario, Canada
* The Harrow, County Wexford, a village in Ireland
* London Borough of Harrow, England
* Harrow, London, a town in London
* Harrow (UK Parliament constituency)
* ...
match on 23 July 1823, which destroyed nearly all of the original records of the MCC and the wider game. The pavilion was promptly rebuilt by Lord. In 1825, the future of the ground was placed in jeopardy when Lord proposed developing the ground with housing at a time when St John's Wood was seeing rapid development. This was prevented by William Ward,
who purchased the ground from Lord for £5,000. His purchase was celebrated in the following anonymous poem:
:And of all who frequent the ground named after Lord,
:On the list first and foremost should stand Mr Ward.
:No man will deny, I am sure, when I say
:That he's without rival first bat of the day,
:And although he has grown a little too stout,
:Even Matthews is bothered at bowling him out.
:He's our life blood and soul in this noblest of games,
:And yet on our praises he's many more claims;
:No pride, although rich, condescending and free,
:And a well informed man and a city M.P.
The first
University Match
The University Match is an annual cricket fixture between Oxford University Cricket Club and Cambridge University Cricket Club. First played in 1827, it is the oldest varsity match in the world.
Until 2001, when first-class cricket was reorga ...
between
Oxford
Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town.
The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
and
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
was held at Lord's in 1827,
[Green 2010, p. 7] at the instigation of
Charles Wordsworth
Charles Wordsworth (22 August 1806 – 5 December 1892) was Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane in Scotland. He was a classical scholar, and taught at Public school (United Kingdom), public schools in England and Scotland. He was a rowin ...
, establishing what would be the oldest first-class fixture in the world until 2020. The ground remained under the ownership of Ward until 1835, after which it was handed over to
James Dark. The pavilion was refurbished in 1838, with the addition of
gas lighting
Gas lighting is the production of artificial light from combustion of a fuel gas such as methane, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, coal gas (town gas) or natural gas. The light is produced either directly by ...
. Around this time Lord's could still be considered a country ground, with open countryside to the north and west. Lord's was described by
Lord Cottesloe in 1845 as being a primitive venue, with low benches put in a circle around the ground at a good distance providing seating for spectators.
[Green 2010, p. 41] Improvements to the ground were gradually made, with the introduction of a telegraph scoreboard in 1846. A small room was built on the north side of the pavilion in 1848 for professionals, providing them with a separate entrance to the field. In the same year scorecards were introduced for the first time, from a portable press, and drainage was installed in 1849–50.
The
Australian Aboriginal cricket team toured England in 1868, with Lord's hosting one of their matches to a mixed response, with ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' describing the tourists as "a travestie upon cricketing at Lord's" and "the conquered natives of a convict colony". Dark proposed to part with his interest in the ground in 1863, for the fee of £15,000 for the remaining years of his lease. An agreement was reached in 1864, with Dark, who was seriously ill,
[Green 2010, p. 44] selling his interests at Lord's for £11,000.
The landlord of the ground, Isaac Moses, offered to sell it outright for £21,000 in 1865, which was reduced to £18,150.
William Nicholson, who was a member of the MCC committee at the time advanced the money on a mortgage, with his proposal for the MCC to buy the ground being unanimously passed at a special general meeting on 2 May 1866.
Following the purchase, a number of developments took place. These included the addition of
cricket nets
Cricket nets are used by batters and bowlers to practice their cricketing techniques. They consist of a cricket pitch (natural or artificial) enclosed by netting on either side, behind, and optionally above. The bowling end is left open.
Net ...
for players to practise and the construction of a grandstand designed by the architect
Arthur Allom, which was built in the winter of 1867–68 and also provided accommodation for the press.
[Green 2010, p. 45] This was funded by a private syndicate of MCC members, from whom the MCC purchased the stand in 1869.
The wicket at Lord's was heavily criticised in the 1860s due to its poor condition, with
Frederick Gale suggesting that nine cricket grounds out of ten within 20 miles of London would have a better wicket;
the condition was deemed so poor as to be dangerous that
Sussex
Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...
refused to play there in 1864.
Continued developments
By the 1860s and 1870s, the great social occasions of the season were the public schools match between Eton and Harrow, the University Match between Oxford and Cambridge, and the
Gentlemen v Players
Gentlemen v Players was a long-running series of cricket matches that began in July 1806 and was abolished in January 1963. It was a match between a team consisting of amateurs (the Gentlemen) and a team consisting of professionals (the Players ...
, with all three matches attracting great crowds. Crowds became so large that they encroached on the playing area, which necessitated the introduction of the
boundary system in 1866. Further crowd control measures were initiated in 1871, with the introduction of turnstiles. The pavilion was expanded in the mid-1860s and shortly thereafter it was decided to replace the original tavern with a new construction commencing in December 1867.
At this time a nascent
county game was beginning to take shape. With Lord's hosting more county matches, the pitches subsequently improved with the
umpires
An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection.
The term derives from the Old French , , and , : (as evidenced in cricke ...
being responsible for their preparation.
Middlesex County Cricket Club
Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Middlesex which has effectively been subsumed within the ceremonial ...
, which had been founded in 1864, began playing their home games at Lord's in 1877 after vacating
their ground in Chelsea,
which had been considered a serious rival to Lord's given its noblemen backers. In 1873–74, an embankment was constructed which could accommodate 4,000 spectators in four rows of seats. Four years later a new lodge and was constructed to replace an older lodge, along with a new workshop, stables and a store room at a cost of £1,000. To meet the ever increasing demand to accommodate more spectators, a temporary stand was constructed on the eastern side of the ground. After many years of complaints regarding the poor condition of the Lord's pitch, the MCC took action by installing Percy Pearce as Ground Superintendent in 1874. Pearce had previously held the same position at the
County Ground, Hove
The County Cricket Ground, known for sponsorship reasons as The 1st Central County Ground, is a cricket venue in Hove, in the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The County Ground is the home of Sussex County Cricket Club, where m ...
. His appointment vastly improved the condition of the wicket, with ''
The Standard
The Standard may refer to:
Entertainment
* The Standard (band), an indie rock band from Portland, Oregon
* ''The Standard'' (novel), a 1934 novel by the Austrian writer Alexander Lernet-Holenia
* ''The Standard'' (Tommy Flanagan album), 1980
* ...
'' describing them as "faultless".
The
Australian cricket team
The Australia men's national cricket team represents Australia in international cricket. Along with England, it is the joint oldest team in Test cricket history, playing and winning the first ever Test match in 1877; the team also plays One ...
captained by
Dave Gregory first visited Lord's on 27 May 1878, defeating their MCC hosts by 9 wickets. This was considered a shock result and established not only the fame of the Australian team, but also the rivalry between England and Australia. Lord's hosted its first
Test match during the
1884 Ashes, becoming the third venue in England to host Test cricket after
The Oval
The Oval, currently named for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club sinc ...
and
Old Trafford
Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and is the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,197, it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after W ...
. The match was won by
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
by an innings and 5 runs, with England's
A. G. Steel and
Edmund Peate recording the first Test
century
A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c.
...
and
five wicket haul
In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batter.
Taking ...
at Lord's respectively.
As part of the
Golden Jubilee Celebrations for Queen Victoria in 1887, the Kings of Belgium, Denmark,
Saxony
Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...
, and Portugal attended Lord's. It was noted that none of them had any grasp of cricket. In the same year Lord's hosted the MCC's hundredth anniversary celebrations, with the MCC playing a celebratory match against England. With only a two-tiered covered grandstand and both increasing membership and spectator numbers, it was decided to build a new pavilion at a cost of £21,000.
Construction on
this pavilion, which was designed by
Thomas Verity, took place in 1889–90.
[Powell 1989, p. 15] The pavilion it replaced was relocated and painstakingly rebuilt on an estate in
Sussex
Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...
, where it lived out its days as a glorified garden shed.
Soon after this, the MCC purchased the land to the east, known today as the Nursery Ground; this had previously been a
market garden
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to s ...
known as Henderson's Nursery which had grown pineapples and tulips.
The ground was subsequently threatened by the
Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway
The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) was formed in 1847 when the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway joined with authorised but unbuilt railway companies, forming a proposed network from Manchester to Grims ...
's attempts to purchase the area for their line into
Marylebone station
Marylebone station ( ) is a London station group, Central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the Marylebone area of the City of Westminster. On the National Rail network, it is also known as London Marylebone a ...
. After considering the company's offer, the MCC relinquished a strip of land bordering Wellington Road and was given in exchange the Clergy Orphan School to the south.
In order to build the railway into Marylebone station, the Nursery Ground had to be dug up to allow tunnels to be constructed between 1894 and 1898 using the
cut-and-cover
A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two Portal (architecture), portals common at each end, though ther ...
method. Once completed the railway company laid a new pitch.
It was rumoured that subsequent tunnelling under Wellington Road provided the banking for the Mound Stand, which was constructed in 1898/99 on an area previously occupied by tennis and
rackets courts. The rapid development of Lord's was not well met by some, with critics suggesting Thomas Lord would 'turn in his grave' at Lord's expansion.
1899 saw
Albert Trott
Albert Edwin Trott (6 February 1873 – 30 July 1914) was a Test cricketer for both Australia and England. He was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1899. He is believed to be the only batsman to have struck a ball over the t ...
hit a
six
6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number.
In mathematics
A six-sided polygon is a hexagon, one of the three regular polygons capable of tiling the plane. A hexagon a ...
over the pavilion while playing for the MCC against the touring Australians, remaining as of the only batsman to do so. The
Imperial Cricket Conference
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England, and South Africa. In 1965, the body was renamed as the Intern ...
was founded by England, Australia and
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
in 1909, with Lord's serving as its headquarters.
[Powell 1989, p. 16]
Lord's hosted three of the nine Test matches in the ill-fated
1912 Triangular Tournament
The 1912 Triangular Tournament was a Test cricket competition played between Australia, England and South Africa, the only Test-playing nations at the time.
The ultimate winners of the tournament were England, with four wins in their six matches ...
which was organised by the South African millionaire
Sir Abe Bailey. The ground's centenary was commemorated in June 1914 with a match between MCC, whose team was selected from the touring party from the recent
tour of South Africa, and a Rest of England team. The Rest of England won the three-day match by an innings and 189 runs. Lord's was requisitioned by
the army during the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, accommodating the Territorial Army,
Royal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) was a specialist corps in the British Army which provided medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace.
On 15 November 2024, the corps was amalgamated with the Royal Army De ...
(RAMC) and
Royal Army Service Corps
The Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) was a corps of the British Army responsible for land, coastal and lake transport, air despatch, barracks administration, the Army Fire Service, staffing headquarters' units, supply of food, water, fuel and do ...
. Both cooking and wireless instruction classes were held at the ground for military personnel. Once the RAMC departed, the
War Office
The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...
used the Nursery Ground and other buildings as a training centre for
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...
cadets. The pavilion and its long room were used throughout the war for the manufacture of hay nets for horses on the
Western Front. Though requisitioned, Lord's held several charity cricket matches during the war, featuring military teams from the various territories of the
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...
. These matches were well attended and one such match in 1918 between England and the
Dominions
A dominion was any of several largely self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the ''British Commonwealth of Nations''. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of colonial self-governance increased (and, in ...
was attended by
George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936.
George w ...
and the
Duke of Connaught
Duke of Connaught and Strathearn was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom that was granted on 24 May 1874 by Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to her third son, Prince Arthur. At the same time, he was al ...
.
Inter–war years and WWII
First-class cricket returned to Lord's in 1919, with a series of two-day matches in the
County Championship
The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...
. 1923 saw the installation of the
Grace Gates, a tribute to
W. G. Grace
William Gilbert Grace (18 July 1848 – 23 October 1915) was an English cricketer who is widely considered one of the sport's all-time greatest players. Always known by his initials as "WG", his first-class career spanned a record-equalling 4 ...
who had died in 1915. They were inaugurated by
Sir Stanley Jackson, who had suggested the inclusion of the words
THE GREAT CRICKETER in the dedication. These gates replaced an earlier, less decorative, entrance to the ground. With attendances growing in number, it was suggested that Lord's aim to accommodate crowds of up to 40,000 for Test matches; however, the stands at the ground were considered inadequate with the grandstand described as "hopelessly out of date". To accommodate these crowds, the old grandstand was demolished and a new one was built in its place in 1926, designed by the architect
Sir Herbert Baker
Sir Herbert Baker (9 June 1862 – 4 February 1946) was an English architect remembered as the dominant force in South African architecture for two decades, and a major designer of some of New Delhi's most notable government structures. He was ...
. Completion of the stand was delayed due to the
1926 General Strike
The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British government ...
.
Upon its completion, Baker presented Lord's with a
weather vane
A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...
''
Father Time
Father Time is a personification of time, in particular the progression of history and the approach of death. In recent centuries, he is usually depicted as an elderly bearded man, sometimes with wings, dressed in a robe and carrying a scythe ...
'' removing the
bails from a
wicket
In the sport of cricket, the term wicket has several meanings:
* It is either of the two sets of three Stump (cricket), stumps and two Bail (cricket), bails at each end of the Cricket pitch, pitch. The Fielding (cricket), fielding team's playe ...
, which was placed on top of the grandstand. The full weathervane is tall, with the figure of ''Father Time'' standing at . Baker further contributed to the landscape of Lord's by designing the Q Stand next to the pavilion in 1934, while at the Nursery End stands were also erected. Careful consideration was taken to preserve the treeline dividing the main ground from the Nursery Ground.
The
West Indies
The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
under the captaincy of
Karl Nunes
Robert Karl Nunes CBE (7 June 1894 – 23 July 1958) was a Jamaican cricketer of Portuguese descent who played in West Indies' first Test in their inaugural Test tour of England as wicketkeeper and captain.
Nunes was born in Kingston, Colon ...
played their first Test match at Lord's in 1928. The ground later hosted the first televised Test match during the
Second Test of the 1938 Ashes series.
The 1935 season saw the Lord's pitches badly affected by
crane fly
A crane fly is any member of the dipteran superfamily Tipuloidea, which contains the living families Cylindrotomidae, Limoniidae, Pediciidae and Tipulidae, as well as several extinct families. "Winter crane flies", members of the family T ...
larvae, known as leatherjackets. The larvae caused bald patches to appear on the playing surface and had to be removed by the ground staff, although spin bowlers did gain some benefit from the bare patches.
In contrast to the First World War, Lord's was not requisitioned by the military during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Lord's hosted matches throughout the war for the
London Counties cricket team, amongst others, which attracted large crowds. The ground was spared major damage from
The Blitz
The Blitz (English: "flash") was a Nazi Germany, German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, during the Second World War.
Towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a co ...
. An oil bomb landed in the Nursery Ground in 1940, with a high-explosive bomb also narrowly missing the Nursery End stands in December of the same year. The grandstand and the pavilion were hit by incendiary bombs, damaging their roofs. The in-house Lord's firefighters reacted quickly and limited the damage. As the war progressed, the threat came not from the
Luftwaffe
The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...
but the newly developed
V-1 flying bomb
The V-1 flying bomb ( "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry () name was Fieseler Fi 103 and its suggestive name was (hellhound). It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug a ...
. Lord's had several near misses from these weapons in 1944, with one bomb landing short of the ground near to
Regents Park
Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically between Marylebone and ...
.
The Nursery Ground had been requisitioned by the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
and converted into a
barrage balloon
A barrage balloon is a type of airborne barrage, a large uncrewed tethered balloon used to defend ground targets against aircraft attack, by raising aloft steel cables which pose a severe risk of collision with hostile aircraft, making the atta ...
site.
The most high-profile damage during the war was that to ''Father Time'', which was damaged by a one such balloon which had broken loose and drifted toward the grandstand, catching ''Father Time'' and depositing it into the seating at the front of the stand. International cricket resumed at the end of the war, with Lord's hosting one of the
Victory Tests
The Victory Tests were a series of cricket matches played in England from 19 May to 22 August 1945, between a combined Australian Services XI and an English national side. The first match began less than two weeks after the end of World War II ...
(though the matches did not actually have Test status) between the
Australian Services cricket team and England.
Post–war years
Following the end of the war attendances at cricket matches grew. The gross attendance of 132,000 and the gate receipts of £43,000 for the
Second Test of the 1948 Ashes series was a record for a Test match in England at that time. This demand necessitated further expansion of the ground, with the construction of the
Warner
Warner can refer to:
People
* Warner (writer)
* Warner (given name)
* Warner (surname)
Fictional characters
* Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner, stars of the animated television series ''Animaniacs''
* Aaron Warner, a character in '' Shatter M ...
Stand in 1958, which included snack bars and a press box.
This stand was the work of the architect Kenneth Peacock and replaced an area of raised ground lined with trees from where it was traditionally possible to watch a match from the comfort of ones own
carriage
A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. In Europe they were a common mode of transport for the wealthy during the Roman Empire, and then again from around 1600 until they were replaced by the motor car around 1 ...
. Prior to the construction of the Warner Stand, all stands at the ground were identified by letters of the alphabet.
The record numbers of spectators who attended Test and
County Championship
The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...
matches began to decline by the end of the 1950s and cricket in England found itself from a position of 2.2 million paid County Championship spectators in 1947, dropping to 719,661 in 1963. To arrest this decline,
List A one-day cricket was introduced in 1963, with Lord's hosting its first List A match in the
1963 Gillette Cup between Middlesex and
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...
and later hosted the
final of the competition between Sussex and
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...
in front of a sell-out 24,000 crowd. It was the first such final held anywhere in the world.
The tavern and its adjoining buildings were demolished in 1968 to make way for the construction of the Tavern Stand, again designed by Peacock.
The tavern was subsequently re-sited next to the Grace Gates and was complemented with a banqueting hall.
Lord's hosted its first
One Day International
One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...
(ODI) in 1972,
with Australia defeating England by 5 wickets. Three years later Lord's hosted the final of the
inaugural men's World Cup, with the
West Indies
The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
triumphing over Australia. Four years later, Lord's held the
final of the 1979 World Cup, with the West Indies once against triumphing, this time against England.
The first women's cricket match at Lord's took place in August 1976 when England and Australia played a 60-over ODI which England won by eight wickets. The opportunity to play a women's match at Lord's resulted from a campaign by
Rachael Heyhoe Flint
Rachael Heyhoe Flint, Baroness Heyhoe Flint, ( Heyhoe; 11 June 1939 – 18 January 2017) was an English cricketer, businesswoman, and philanthropist. She was best known for being captain of England from 1966 to 1978, and was unbeaten in six ...
, and was given extra impetus by England's victory in the
1973 Women's Cricket World Cup
The 1973 Women's Cricket World Cup was the inaugural Women's Cricket World Cup, held in England from 20 June to 28 July 1973. It was the first tournament of its kind, held two years before the first limited overs World Cup for men in 1975. The ...
. England had to wait another 11 years to play their second match at Lord's. The ground hosted the final of the
ICC Women's Cricket World Cup
The Women's Cricket World Cup is the quadrennial international championship of Women's One Day International Cricket tournament. Matches are played as One Day Internationals over 50 overs per team. There is also another championship for Tw ...
in
1993
The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as:
* International Year for the World's Indigenous People
The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...
with England beating New Zealand to win the World Cup. The ground was not fully opened for the game and only 5,000 spectators were able to attend.
A new indoor cricket school was completed in 1973 at the Nursery End, funded by £75,000 from
Sir Jack Hayward
Sir Jack Arnold Hayward (14 June 1923 – 13 January 2015) was an English businessman, property developer, philanthropist, and president of English football club Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Biography
Early life
The only son of Charles William ...
and additional funds raised by the
Lord's Taverners
The Lord's Taverners is a UK youth cricket and disability sports charity. Its charitable objective is to empower and positively impact the lives of young people facing challenges of inequality.
Lord's Taverners was founded in 1950 by a group ...
and
The Sports Council.
The West Indies appeared in their
third successive World Cup final in 1983, but were defeated by 43 runs by
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. The Mound Stand's roof was removed in 1985 to make way for a new upper tier designed by
Michael Hopkins and Partners
Sir Michael John Hopkins (7 May 1935 – 17 June 2023) was an English architect.
The RIBA Royal Gold Medal-winning architect founded Hopkins Architects with his wife Patty and was widely regarded as among the greatest of contemporary British ...
, which opened in time for the MCC's bicentenary in 1987. That bicentenary was celebrated with a
five-day match between MCC and a Rest of the World team in August 1987, which ended in a draw after the final day was rained off.
Graham Gooch
Graham Alan Gooch, (born 23 July 1953) is a former English first-class cricketer who captained Essex and England. He was one of the most successful international batsmen of his generation, and through a career spanning 1973 until 1997, he was ...
made the first Test match triple-century at Lord's, scoring 333 against India in 1990. The final decade of the 20th–century saw rapid redevelopment of Lord's. The
Compton and
Edrich stands were completed in 1991, having run over time and budget.
The indoor school closed in 1994, owing to the construction of a new state-of-the-art indoor cricket centre which opened in 1995.
The old Grandstand was demolished in 1996, with a replacement designed by
Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners being completed in 1998. Since 1997, Lord's was home to the
European Cricket Council
The European Cricket Council (ECC) was an international body which oversaw cricket in European countries other than the Test cricket, Test-playing cricketing nation of English cricket team, England, the only European Full Member of the ICC for ...
(ECC) till 2010 and currently is home to ICC Europe, which administers cricket outside of the European
full-member nations. With Lord's hosting three matches in the
1999 World Cup, including the
final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...
, the MCC set about improving press facilities by constructing the Media Centre at the Nursery End between the Compton and Edrich stands, offering commanding views towards the pavilion from over the bowlers arm. The Media Centre was opened in April 1999 by then MCC President
Tony Lewis
Anthony Robert Lewis CBE (born 6 July 1938) is a Welsh former cricketer, who captained England, became a journalist, went on to become the face of BBC Television cricket coverage between 1986 and 1998, and became president of the Marylebone ...
.
21st–century developments
Lord's hosted its one-hundredth Test match in June 2000, with England defeating the West Indies by two wickets; the match was also notable for the 21 wickets which fell on the second day, the most to fall in a day in a Test at Lord's since 1888. The ground also hosted The University Match over three days for the last time in 2000, after which the match alternated between
Fenner's
Fenner's is Cambridge University Cricket Club's ground.
History
Cambridge University Cricket Club had previously played at two grounds in Cambridge, the University Ground and Parker's Piece. In 1846, Francis Fenner leased a former cherry orc ...
at Cambridge and
University Parks
The Oxford University Parks, commonly referred to locally as the University Parks, or just The Parks, is a large parkland area slightly northeast of the city centre in Oxford, England. The park is bounded to the east by the River Cherwell, tho ...
at Oxford. The fixture has continued at Lord's since 2001 as a one-day limited overs match. At the start of the 21st–century, the Lord's slope which provides a benefit to both
seam bowlers and
swing bowlers from the Pavilion and Nursery Ends respectively, was under threat of being levelled due to the advent of
drop-in pitches. However, the MCC resisted these calls as levelling the pitch would require the rebuilding of Lord's and would mean Test cricket would not be able to be played there for five years. The outfield was notorious for becoming waterlogged due to the clay soil, which resulted in considerable lost match time. The entire outfield was relaid in the winter of 2002 with the clay soil being replaced with sand, which has improved drainage. Lord's hosted its first
Twenty20
Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...
match in the second edition of the
Twenty20 Cup
The T20 Blast, officially known as the Vitality Blast for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in England and Wales. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003. T20 Blast is ...
in 2004. In 2005 the
International Cricket Council
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global Sports governing body, governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England, and South Africa. In 1965, the body wa ...
(formerly the Imperial Cricket Conference) headquarters, which had been located at Lord's since its foundation in 1909, were closed and moved to the
Dubai Sports City
Dubai Sports City or DSC is a multi-venue sports complex in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, developed by Dubai. It is located in Al Hebiah 4. It provides a mix of residential, retail, leisure and recreational facilities. It is built around five ...
in the United Arab Emirates.

Temporary
floodlights
A floodlight is a broad-beamed, gas discharge lamp#High-intensity discharge lamps, high-intensity artificial light. It can provide functional area lighting for travel-ways, parking, entrances, work areas, and sporting venues to enable visibil ...
were installed at the ground in 2007, but were removed in 2008 after complaints of
light pollution
Light pollution is the presence of any unwanted, inappropriate, or excessive artificial Visible spectrum, lighting. In a descriptive sense, the term ''light pollution'' refers to the effects of any poorly implemented lighting sources, during the ...
from local residents. In January 2009,
Westminster City Council
Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. The council has been under Labour majority control since 2022. Full council meetings ...
approved the use of new 48 metre high retractable floodlights designed to minimise light spillage into nearby homes. Conditions of the approval included a five-year trial period during which up to 12 matches and 4 practice matches could be played under the lights from April to September. The lights must be dimmed to half-strength at 9.50 pm and be switched off by 11 pm. The floodlights were first used successfully on 27 May 2009 during the Twenty20 Cup match between Middlesex and
Kent
Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
. Two weeks after the first use of the floodlights, Lord's hosted its first
Twenty20 International
Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). ...
in the
World Twenty20 between England and the
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
, which resulted in a shock last-ball win for the associate nation. Lord's held the
final of the competition between
Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
and
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
, which Pakistan won by 8 wickets.
In 2008 plans were drawn up by the MCC committee to fund the future £250 million development of the ground by constructing residential apartments and a luxury hotel along the Wellington Road and Grove End Road.
The Lord's Masterplan was unveiled in 2013, which is a twenty-year plan to redevelop the ground and improve its facilities. The first phase of the masterplan involved the demolition and replacement of the Warner Stand with a new stand, which was built between 2015 and 2017. The new stand has improved facilities for match officials and reduced the number of restricted view spectator seats from 600 to 100.
Phase two of the masterplan involved the demolition of the Compton and Edrich Stands in 2019, with their replacements being completed in 2021; these provided an extra 2,000 seats and for the first time were linked by a walkway bridge.
Lord's celebrated the
two hundredth anniversary of its current ground in 2014. To mark the occasion, an MCC XI captained by
Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (; ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who List of India national cricket captains#Men's cricket, captained the Indian national team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketer ...
played a Rest of the World XI led by
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne (13 September 1969 – 4 March 2022) was an Australian international cricketer whose career ran from 1992 to 2007. Warne played as a right-arm leg spin bowler and a lower-order right-handed batter for Victoria, Hampshire ...
in a 50-over match.
Two matches of note were played at the ground in July 2019. The first of these was
2019 World Cup Final between England and New Zealand, which ended as a tie with both sides making 241 runs from their 50 overs. The final was then decided by a
Super Over
Super Over, also known as a one-over eliminator or a one over per side eliminator, is a Tiebreaker, tie-breaking method used in Limited overs cricket, limited-overs cricket matches. If a match ends in a "Result (cricket)#Tie, tie", it proceeds t ...
, which also ended in a tie. Therefore, the winner was decided on the number of boundaries scored in the game and Super Over; this was England's first World Cup triumph. A second match of note followed four days later when
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
played
their first Test match at Lord's, where they bowled England out for 85 on the first morning of the match with
Tim Murtagh taking 5 for 13. Despite this, in their second innings Ireland were dismissed for 38, the lowest Test total at Lord's and lost the match by 143 runs.
In August 2022 the ground's East Gate was renamed the Heyhoe Flint Gate in honour of Rachael Heyhoe Flint.
Ground features and facilities
Stands
As of , the stands at Lord's are (clockwise from the Pavilion):
File:Lords 6.jpg, Warner
Warner can refer to:
People
* Warner (writer)
* Warner (given name)
* Warner (surname)
Fictional characters
* Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner, stars of the animated television series ''Animaniacs''
* Aaron Warner, a character in '' Shatter M ...
Stand
File:Lord's Cricket Ground Grand Stand.jpg, Grand Stand
File:Lords Compton Stand Oct 2021.jpg, Compton Stand
File:Lords Edrich Stand Oct 2021.jpg, Edrich Stand
File:Lords south stands.jpg, Mound Stand (left)
File:Lords Cricket Ground, London (Ank Kumar) 01.jpg, Tavern Stand
File:Lords match in progress.jpg, Allen Allen, Allen's or Allens may refer to:
Buildings
* Allen Arena, an indoor arena at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee
* Allen Center, a skyscraper complex in downtown Houston, Texas
* Allen Fieldhouse, an indoor sports arena on the Univ ...
Stand (right) (formerly Q Stand)
File:Lords Labels 2021.svg, Overview of the stands at Lord's
Many of the stands were rebuilt in the late 20th century. In 1987 the new Mound Stand, designed by
Michael Hopkins and Partners
Sir Michael John Hopkins (7 May 1935 – 17 June 2023) was an English architect.
The RIBA Royal Gold Medal-winning architect founded Hopkins Architects with his wife Patty and was widely regarded as among the greatest of contemporary British ...
, was opened, followed by the Grand Stand, designed by
Nicholas Grimshaw
Sir Nicholas Grimshaw (born 9 October 1939) is a prominent English architect, particularly noted for several modernist buildings, including London's Waterloo International railway station and the Eden Project in Cornwall. He was President of ...
, in 1996. The
Media Centre, opposite the Pavilion between the
Compton and
Edrich Stands, was added in 1999. Designed by
Future Systems
Future Systems was a London-based architectural and design practice, formerly headed by Directors Jan Kaplický and Amanda Levete.
Future Systems was founded by Kaplický and David Nixon after working with Denys Lasdun, Norman Foster, Ren ...
, it won the Royal Institute of British Architects'
Stirling Prize
The Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize is a British prize for excellence in architecture. It is named after the architect James Stirling, organised and awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The ...
for 1999. The redevelopment of the Compton Stand and Edrich Stands was completed in 2021, adding 2,600 seats and bringing the ground capacity to 31,100 spectators. The two ends of the pitch are the Pavilion End (south-west), where the main members' pavilion is located, and the Nursery End (north-east), dominated by the Media Centre.
The current Grand Stand replaced the one built in 1926 by Sir Herbert Baker. Although the stand was described as "truly a thing of beauty, loved by all who gazed upon it", it did have limitations for spectators. 43% of the seats had an obstructed views of the playing area and the structure itself was becoming rotten.
Pavilion
The current pavilion at Lord's is the third pavilion to stand at the ground and is the main survivor from the Victorian era, having been built in 1889–90. It has been a
Grade II* listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
since September 1982.
The pavilion was constructed using brick with ornate terracotta facing, which includes terracotta gargoyles, such as 'The Patriarch' which is thought to represent
Lord Harris
Colonel George Robert Canning Harris, 4th Baron Harris, (3February 185124March 1932), generally known as Lord Harris, was a British colonial administrator and Governor of Bombay, best known for developing cricket administration via Marylebone ...
. The building consists of a long, two storey centre section with covered seating between two end towers which are capped with pyramidal roofs which have ornate wrought and cast iron lanterns.
Running the full length of the rear of the second floor is the pavilion roof terrace, which provides views of the entire ground. It underwent an £8 million refurbishment programme in 2004–05. The pavilion is primarily for members of the MCC, who may use its amenities, which include seats for viewing the cricket, the Long Room and its Bar, the Bowlers Bar, and a members' shop. At Middlesex matches the pavilion is open to members of the Middlesex County Cricket Club. The Pavilion also contains the
dressing room
Dressing commonly refers to the activity of putting on clothing. Dressing may also refer to:
Technique
* Dressing (medical), a medical covering for a wound, usually made of cloth
* Dressing (knot), the process of arranging a knot
* Dressing, the ...
s where players change, each of which has a small balcony for players to watch the play.
The Long Room is found on the ground floor of the pavilion and has been described by
Lawrence Booth as "the most evocative four walls in world cricket".
[Arm-Ball to Zooter, Lawrence Booth, Penguin 2006, , p.150-1] Players walk through the Long Room on their way from the dressing rooms to the
cricket field
A cricket field or cricket oval is a large grass field on which the game of cricket is played. Although generally oval in shape, there is a wide variety within this: perfect circles, elongated ovals, rounded rectangles, or irregular shapes with ...
; this walk is notoriously long and complex at Lord's. On his Test debut in 1975,
David Steele got lost on his way out to bat "and ended up in the pavilion's basement toilets". Once a player reaches the Long Room is approximately 30 paces from the swing door at the rear of the room to the steps which lead onto the playing field. The Long Room is decorated with paintings of famous cricketers and administrators from the 18th to the 21st century, predominantly English players. For an overseas player to have their portrait placed in the Long Room is a considerable honour. Amongst overseas players to have a portrait in the Long Room are four Australians:
Don Bradman
Sir Donald George Bradman (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001), nicknamed "The Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. His cricketing successes have been claimed by Shane ...
,
Keith Miller
Keith Ross Miller (28 November 1919 – 11 October 2004) was an Australian Test cricketer and a Royal Australian Air Force pilot during World War II. Miller is widely regarded as Australia's greatest ever all-rounder. His ability, irreverent m ...
,
Victor Trumper
Victor Thomas Trumper (2 November 1877 – 28 June 1915) was an Australian cricketer known as the most stylish and versatile batsman of the Golden Age of cricket, capable of playing match-winning innings on wet wickets his contemporaries found ...
and
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne (13 September 1969 – 4 March 2022) was an Australian international cricketer whose career ran from 1992 to 2007. Warne played as a right-arm leg spin bowler and a lower-order right-handed batter for Victoria, Hampshire ...
.
Found in the players dressing rooms are the
Lord's honours boards
The Lord's honours boards are boards in the Lord's Pavilion, Pavilion at Lord's Cricket Ground in London, which commemorate cricket players who have scored a century (cricket), century, taken Five-wicket haul, 5 wickets in a single innings, or ...
, which commemorate
centuries,
five wicket haul
In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batter.
Taking ...
s and
ten wicket haul
In cricket, a ten-wicket haul occurs when a bowler takes ten wickets in either a single innings or across both innings of a two-innings match. The phrase ten wickets in a match is also used.
Taking ten wickets in a match at Lord's earns the bowle ...
s in a match. Two honours boards for batting and bowling commemorate England players in the home dressing room, while the batting and bowling boards commemorating players from other nationalities are found in the away dressing room. Originally only these achievements in Test matches were commemorated, but since 2019 an honours board for ODIs has been introduced. As of
167 players have made 240 Test centuries at Lord's and
130 players have taken 186 five wicket hauls. In ODI's
29 players have made 32 centuries at Lord's and
14 players have taken a five wicket haul. A separate "neutral" honours board was created in 2010 to coincide with Lord's hosting a
Test match between Australia and Pakistan. The Australians
Warren Bardsley
Warren "Curly" Bardsley (6 December 1882 – 20 January 1954) was an Australian Test cricketer. An opening batsman, Bardsley played 41 Tests between 1909 and 1926 and over 200 first-class games for New South Wales. He was Wisden's Cricketer of ...
and
Charlie Kelleway
Charles Kelleway (25 April 1886 – 16 November 1944) was an Australian cricketer who played in 26 Test matches between 1910 and 1928.
In 1911/12, he played against the MCC touring-team captained by Plum Warner. In the Test-series, he took a ...
were the first two names added to this board, commemorating their centuries against South Africa in 1912. They were joined by the Australians
Shane Watson
Shane Robert Watson (born 17 June 1981) is an Australian cricket coach, commentator and former cricketer who played for and occasionally captained the Australia national cricket team, Australian national cricket team between 2002 and 2016. He ...
and
Marcus North
Marcus James North (born 28 July 1979) is a former Australian first-class cricketer who played 21 Test matches and two One Day Internationals (ODIs) for the Australian national side.
Born in Melbourne, North grew up in Western Australia, att ...
, who both took five wicket hauls against Pakistan.
The dress code in the pavilion is notoriously strict. Men are required to wear "ties and tailored coats and acceptable trousers with appropriate shoes" and women are required to wear "dresses; or skirts or trousers worn with blouses, and appropriate shoes". Until 1999 women – except
Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...
– were not permitted to enter the pavilion as members during play, due to the gender-based membership policy of the MCC. The 1998 decision to allow female MCC members represented a historic modernisation of the pavilion and its clubs.
Media Centre

The decision to build the Media Centre was made during a meeting of the MCC committee in 1995.
These plans sought to remove the inadequate media facilities mostly concentrated in the Warner Stand which could accommodate 90 journalists, along with wooden shacks dotted around the ground for commentators,
and replace them with a new purpose built facility. It was then approved by members of the MCC at a special general meeting in December 1996.
A gap between the Compton and Edrich Stands was selected, with space limitations requiring the centre to stand above the ground on reinforced supports from the structure around its two lift shafts. This design allowed for uninterrupted access between the main ground and the Nursery Ground, while also allowing the movement of ground staff and their equipment.
It was designed by the
Future Systems
Future Systems was a London-based architectural and design practice, formerly headed by Directors Jan Kaplický and Amanda Levete.
Future Systems was founded by Kaplický and David Nixon after working with Denys Lasdun, Norman Foster, Ren ...
architectural practice led by Czech architect
Jan Kaplický
Jan Kaplický (; ; 18 April 1937 – 14 January 2009) was a Neofuturistic Czech architect who spent a significant part of his life in the United Kingdom. He was the leading architect behind the innovative design office, Future Systems. He was b ...
and was the first all-aluminium, semi-
monocoque
Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell".
First used for boats, ...
building in the world, costing about £5 million. Construction began in January 1997 and was completed in time for the 1999 World Cup. It was built in 32 sections and fitted out by Pendennis Shipyard in
Falmouth in combination with
Centraalstaal from the Netherlands.
These pieces were then delivered to Lord's where they were lowered into place during the
1998 season.
The glazing on the front of the centre is inclined 25° so as to eliminate reflections and glare on the pitch to minimise the visual barrier between members of the media and the players. The lower tier of the centre provides accommodation for 118 journalists, with two hospitality boxes either side which accommodate 18 people each. The top tier has radio and television commentary boxes, consisting of two television studios, two large commentary and radio commentary boxes, each holding up to six people.
The centre's only opening window is in the broadcasting box used by BBC
Test Match Special
''Test Match Special'' (also known as ''TMS'') is a British sports radio programme, originally, as its name implies, dealing exclusively with Test cricket matches, but currently covering any professional cricket. The programme is available on BB ...
. The building won eight architectural awards, including the
RIBA Stirling Prize for architecture in 1999. The Media Centre was originally sponsored by
NatWest
National Westminster Bank, trading as NatWest, is a major Retail banking, retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom based in London, England. It was established in 1968 by the Corporate merger, merger of National Provincial Bank and We ...
, with sponsorship being taken over by
Investec
Investec is an Anglo- South African international banking and wealth management group, founded in Johannesburg, South Africa. It provides a range of financial products and services to a client base in Europe, Southern Africa, and Asia-Pacific. ...
in 2007. Since 31 May 2011, the media centre has been sponsored by
J. P. Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. As the head of the banking firm that ...
.
Nursery Ground
Purchased in two parts by the MCC in 1838 and 1887, the ground is primarily used as a practice ground and is considered to have some of the best grass
nets in the world.
In 1895 the
Middlesex Volunteers requested the use of the Nursery Ground as a drill ground, but this was declined by the MCC.
The Nursery Pavilion, which was constructed in 1999, overlooks the playing area of the Nursery Ground and is one of London's largest venues. The ground has hosted one first-class cricket match in 1903, when the MCC played
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...
; the match was originally to be played on the main Lord's ground, but heavy rain had fallen and in the week leading up to the match this had led to the abandonment of a match between the MCC and Nottinghamshire. The heavy rain persisted during the MCC v Yorkshire match, with the players spending the first two days of the three-day match sat in the pavilion. However, it was deemed that the playing surface on the Nursery Ground was suitable for the third day of the match to be played there, with both sides batting for an innings each and Yorkshire's
Wilfred Rhodes
Wilfred Rhodes (29 October 1877 – 8 July 1973) was an English professional cricketer who played 58 Test matches for England between 1899 and 1930. In Tests, Rhodes took 127 wickets and scored 2,325 runs, becoming the first Englishman ...
making an
unbeaten 98.
The
Women's University Match has been played on the Nursery Ground since 2001, however following calls for gender equality, the 20-over fixture will be played on the main Lord's ground for the first time from 2022 alongside the men's fixtures. On big match days crowds are allowed onto the outfield. The Cross Arrows Cricket Club play their home matches at the Nursery Ground toward the end of the cricket season.
The construction of the new Compton and Edrich stands, beginning in August 2019, encroached on the Nursery Ground's playing area. In order to reclaim the playing area lost to the redevelopment of the stands, the temporary Nursery Pavilion will be demolished in 2025–26 and the playing area will be extended up to the perimeter wall running along the Wellington Road.
MCC Museum and Library

Lord's is the home of the MCC Museum, which is the oldest sports museum in the world, and contains the world's most celebrated collection of cricket
memorabilia
A souvenir (French language, French for 'a remembrance or memory'), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memory, memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collecte ...
, including
The Ashes urn
The Ashes urn is a small urn made of terracotta and standing high, long believed to contain the ashes of a bail (cricket), cricket bail or the burnt remains of a lady's veil. It was presented to Ivo Bligh, 8th Earl of Darnley, Ivo Bligh, the ca ...
.
MCC has been collecting memorabilia since 1864, the collection being originated by Sir
Spencer Ponsonby-Fane, who subsequently became the club Treasurer.
[''Barclay's World of Cricket – 2nd Edition'', 1980, Collins Publishers, , p47] These items were originally displayed in the pavilion, limiting access to the collection to MCC members. Following the Second World War the collection had outgrown its home in the pavilion, with a decision made to relocate the collection and open it to the public. The MCC moved the collection to a disused rackets court, which had fallen into disrepair during the war, with this location also acting as a memorial to the fallen members of the MCC from the two world wars.
They appointed
Diana Rait Kerr, "to whom the game owes a great debt", to be the first full-time creator of the museum and library, a position she held from 1945 to 1968.
[ The museum was officially opened to the public as the Imperial Memorial Collection by the ]Duke of Edinburgh
Duke of Edinburgh, named after the capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh, is a substantive title that has been created four times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not pr ...
in 1953. During her tenure as curator, Rait Kerr secured donations of pictures, equipment and other artefacts from around the world. Rait Kerr was succeeded as curator by Stephen Green in 1968.[ The museum today welcomes around 50,000 visitors per year.]
Amongst the items on display include cricket kit used by Victor Trumper
Victor Thomas Trumper (2 November 1877 – 28 June 1915) was an Australian cricketer known as the most stylish and versatile batsman of the Golden Age of cricket, capable of playing match-winning innings on wet wickets his contemporaries found ...
, Jack Hobbs
Sir John Berry Hobbs (16 December 1882 – 21 December 1963) was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey from 1905 to 1934 and for England in 61 Test matches between 1908 and 1930. Known as "The Master", he is widely regarded ...
, Don Bradman
Sir Donald George Bradman (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001), nicknamed "The Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. His cricketing successes have been claimed by Shane ...
, Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne (13 September 1969 – 4 March 2022) was an Australian international cricketer whose career ran from 1992 to 2007. Warne played as a right-arm leg spin bowler and a lower-order right-handed batter for Victoria, Hampshire ...
, and others; many items related to the career of W. G. Grace
William Gilbert Grace (18 July 1848 – 23 October 1915) was an English cricketer who is widely considered one of the sport's all-time greatest players. Always known by his initials as "WG", his first-class career spanned a record-equalling 4 ...
; and curiosities such as the stuffed sparrow that was 'bowled out' by Jahangir Khan
Jahangir Khan (Pashto, born 10 December 1963) is a former professional Pakistani squash player. He won the World Open title six times, and the British Open title ten times (1982–1991). He is widely regarded as the greatest squash player ...
of Cambridge University in delivering a ball to T. N. Pearce batting for the MCC on 3 July 1936. It also contains the battered copy of ''Wisden'' that helped to sustain E. W. Swanton through his captivity in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp
A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war.
There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...
during the Second World War. It continues to collect historic artefacts and also commissions new paintings and photography. It contains the Brian Johnston
Brian Alexander Johnston (24 June 1912 – 5 January 1994), nicknamed Johnners, was a British cricket commentator, author, and television presenter. He was most prominently associated with the BBC during a career which lasted from 1946 until h ...
Memorial Theatre, a cinema which screens historical cricket footage for visitors. The museum collaborates with a number of national museums and schools through active loans, in addition to community and tour programmes. It is a member of the Sporting Heritage network.
Lord's also has one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of books and publications dedicated to cricket. The library includes over 20,000 volumes and grows by around 400 volumes a year. The library encourages donations from authors and publishers. The library operates as a private library for MCC members on match days, but is open by appointment on non-match days. It was expanded in the 1980s with the opening of a new library in the tennis court block to the rear of the pavilion, having previously been housed in a small office in the pavilion.[Green 2010, p. 436] In 2010, a selection of 100 duplicates from the library's collection was offered for auction by Christie's
Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...
with proceeds going to support the library.
Gardens
Lord's has two gardens, the Harris Garden and the Coronation Garden. The Coronation Garden was created behind the A stand (Warner Stand) in 1952 to celebrate the Coronation of Elizabeth II
The Coronation of the British monarch, coronation of Elizabeth II as queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms took place on 2 June 1953 at Westminster Abbey in London. Elizabeth acceded to the throne at the age of 25 upon th ...
. It contains weeping Ash trees
''Fraxinus'' (), commonly called ash, is a genus of plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae, and comprises 45–65 species of usually medium-to-large trees, most of which are deciduous trees, although some subtropical species are evergr ...
and other trees, providing a shaded area under which benches are found. Preserved in the Coronation Garden is one of the first models of mass-produced, cast iron, heavy rollers dating from the 1880s, which was in use at Lord's until 1945. A large bronze statue of W. G. Grace stands in the Coronation Garden. The garden is popular with picnickers during major matchdays. The Harris Garden, formerly tennis courts, was created as a rose garden
A rose garden or rosarium is a garden or park, often open to the public, used to present and grow various types of garden roses, and sometimes rose species. Designs vary tremendously and roses may be displayed alongside other plants or grouped ...
in 1934 in memory of Lord Harris
Colonel George Robert Canning Harris, 4th Baron Harris, (3February 185124March 1932), generally known as Lord Harris, was a British colonial administrator and Governor of Bombay, best known for developing cricket administration via Marylebone ...
. The garden was restored and re-launched in 2018. The restoration included the exposing of the flint wall which runs along the back of the garden, which displays a dedication to Lord Harris. The flower beds in the Harris Garden were replanted in 2018 with a floral design featuring flowers from all the Test playing nations. The Harris Garden is available for private hire and can host up to 300 people.
Other sports
Pelham Warner
Sir Pelham Francis Warner, (2 October 1873 – 30 January 1963), affectionately and better known as Plum Warner or "the Grand Old Man" of English cricket, was a Test cricketer and cricket administrator.
He was knighted for services to sport ...
was of the opinion that the only other sport which had any real standing at Lord's was real tennis
Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of tennis (also called "lawn tennis") is derived. It is also known as court tennis in the United Sta ...
.[Warner 1987, p. 292] A real tennis court began construction in October 1838, with the foundation stone of the court being laid by Benjamin Aislabie.[Warner 1987, p. 28] The court was built at a cost of £4,000, which at the time was exceptionally high. A real tennis competition was later established in 1867. The tennis court was demolished in 1898 to make way for the Mound Stand, with a replacement court being built behind the pavilion in 1900 in the back garden of number 3 Grove End Road. By 2005 the MCC had a real tennis playing membership of 200. The playing of rackets at Lord's dates from 1844 and is currently played in the same building as real tennis. Lord's hosted the Public Schools Championship in 1866, with Harrow School triumphing. Since then the Championship has been held at Prince's Club
The Prince's Club was a socially exclusive gentlemen's multisports club in London, England. The original 'Prince's Club' was founded in 1853 in Chelsea, London, Chelsea by George and James Prince and its main sports were Racquets (sport), racket ...
, before moving to Queen's Club
The Queen's Club is a private sporting club in Barons Court, West Kensington, London, England. The club hosts the annual Queen's Club Championships grass court lawn tennis tournament (currently known as the "HSBC Championships" for spo ...
.
With the advent of lawn tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
, a decision was made at the annual general meeting of the MCC in May 1875 to construct a tennis court, although there was strong opposition from some members. A suggestion to standardise the rules of tennis was made at Lord's by J. M. Heathcote, who was himself a prominent real tennis player. On 3 March 1875 the MCC, in its capacity as the governing body for rackets and real tennis, convened a meeting at Lord's to test the various versions of lawn tennis which existed with the aim to fully standardise the game's rules. Amongst the various versions of lawn tennis which were demonstrated were Major Clopton Wingfield's ''Sphairistikè'', and John H. Hale's Germains Lawn Tennis. After the meeting, the MCC Tennis Committee was tasked with framing the rules. On 29 May 1875 the MCC issued the ''Laws of Lawn Tennis'', the first unified rules for lawn tennis, which were adopted by the club on 24 June. These rules were amended by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club
The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC), also known as the All England Club, based at Church Road, Wimbledon, London, England, is a Gentlemen's club, private members' club. It is best known as the venue for the Wimbledon Championsh ...
for the 1877 Wimbledon Championship
The 1877 Wimbledon Championship was a men's tennis tournament held at the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club (AEC & LTC) in Wimbledon, London. It was the world's first official lawn tennis tournament, and was later recognised as the fir ...
, with the dimensions of the tennis courts being based on those at Lord's; the courts on which these were based are no longer used for tennis and are now part of the Harris Garden.
The original intention for the purchase of the northern part of the Nursery Ground in 1838 was for it to serve as an archery
Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a Bow and arrow, bow to shooting, shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting ...
venue. Archery is recorded as having been played at Lord's as far back as August 1844, when visiting Ioway Indians camped at Lord's and demonstrated their archery skills. Lord's was one of the venues for the 2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
, hosting the archery competition
Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a Bow and arrow, bow to shooting, shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting ...
. The archery competition took place in front of the pavilion, which the archers were positioned in front of, with the targets placed 70 metres away just past the square
In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...
and in front of the Media Centre. Either side of the square temporary stands holding up to 5,000 spectators were erected.
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...
was first played at Lord's in 1833 by the Canadian pioneers of the sport.[Green 2010, p. 347] Lacrosse returned to Lord's in 1876, when a team of Canadian Gentlemen Amateurs led by William George Beers
William George Beers (May 5, 1841 – December 26, 1900) was a Canadian dentist who founded Canada's first dental journal and served as the founding dean of the Dental College of the Province of Quebec. In addition, he is referred to as the "fat ...
played an exhibition match at the ground against a team of Iroquois Indians. A Canadian lacrosse team toured the United Kingdom again in 1883, with one exhibition match being staged at Lord's in front of several thousand spectators. It was later played again at Lord's in October 1953 when the Kenton and Old Thorntonians lacrosse clubs met there in a lacrosse championship match, with further fixtures following in November of the same year.
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
was first played at Lord's in 1874 when the MCC hosted a touring party of 22 baseball players from the Boston Red Stockings and the Philadelphia Athletics
The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, they became the Oakland ...
, who were the two leading American baseball teams of the time. The Red Stockings defeated The Athletics 24–7 in front of a crowd of 5,000 spectators. A baseball game was held at Lord's during the First World War to raise funds for the Canadian Widows and Orphans Fund. A Canadian team played a team of American London residents in a match watched by 10,000 people.
Lord's hosted the London pre- 1968 Olympics field hockey
Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...
tournament in 1967. One match saw India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
play Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
, which was broadcast live on the BBC, which at the time was unprecedented in field hockey. Pakistan won the match 1–0, while Pakistan also went on to defeat Belgium
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
later in the tournament. The ground hosted further international hockey matches in the 1970s. The University Match
The University Match is an annual cricket fixture between Oxford University Cricket Club and Cambridge University Cricket Club. First played in 1827, it is the oldest varsity match in the world.
Until 2001, when first-class cricket was reorga ...
between Oxford and Cambridge hockey clubs took place at Lord's for twenty-one years beginning in 1969. England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
beat world-champions India for the time ever in this venue, in 1978.
Other sports to have been played at Lord's include lawn bowls
Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which players try to roll their ball (called a bowl) closest to a smaller ball (known as a "jack" or sometimes a "kitty"). The bowls are shaped (biased), so that they follow a curve ...
and billiards
Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . Cue sports, a category of stic ...
. In 1838, a bowling green
A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls.
Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...
was constructed at the western end of the ground, in addition to a billiards room with two billiard tables which was added to the original tavern,[Warner 1987, p. 29][Green 2010, p. 36] with professional billiards players playing matches at Lord's on a Monday during the cricket season; In the late 1840s and early 1850s, Lord's held Galloway pony races after the cricket season was over, with races starting at the tavern and finishing twenty yards south of the pavilion.
International records
Test
* Highest team total: 729/6 declared by Australia v England, 1930
*Lowest team total: 38 all out by Ireland v England, 2019
* Highest individual innings: 333 by Graham Gooch for England v India, 1990
* Best bowling in an innings: 8/34 by Ian Botham
Ian Terence Botham, Baron Botham (born 24 November 1955) is an English cricket commentator, member of the House of Lords, a former cricketer who has been chairman of Durham County Cricket Club since 2017 and charity fundraiser. Hailed as one of ...
for England v Pakistan, 1978
* Best bowling in a match: 16/137 by Bob Massie for Australia v England, 1972
One Day International
* Highest team total: 334/4 (60 overs) by England v India, 1975
* Lowest team total: 107 all out (32.1 overs) by South Africa v England, 2003
* Highest individual innings: 138 * by Viv Richards
Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards (born 7 March 1952) is a retired Antiguan cricketer who represented the West Indies cricket team between 1974 and 1991. Usually batting at number three in a dominant West Indies side, Richards is widely ...
for West Indies v England, 1979
* Best bowling in an innings: 6/24 by Reece Topley for England v India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
, 2022
Twenty20 International
* Highest team total: 199/4 (20 overs) by West Indies v ICC World XI, 2018
* Lowest team total: 93 all out (17.3 overs) by Netherlands v Pakistan, 2009
* Highest individual innings: 78 by Mahela Jayawardene
Denagamage Praboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene (; born 27 May 1977) is a Sri Lankan former professional cricketer and captain of the Sri Lanka national cricket team, Sri Lankan national cricket team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest ...
for Sri Lanka v Ireland, 2009
* Best bowling in an innings: 4/11 by Shahid Afridi
Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi (, ; born 1 March 197is a Pakistani former cricketer and captain of the Pakistan national cricket team. An all-rounder, Afridi was a right-handed leg spinner and a right-handed batsman.
Afridi made ...
for Pakistan v Netherlands, 2009
All records correct as of .
Domestic records
First-class
* Highest team total: 655 by Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...
v Glamorgan, 2024.
* Lowest team total: 15 by MCC v Surrey
Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...
, 1839
* Highest individual innings: 335 * by Sam Northeast for Glamorgan
Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the South Wales, south of Wales. Originally an ea ...
v Middlesex, 2024.
*Three bowlers have taken a ten-wicket haul in an innings where the exact bowling figures are not recorded, however it is known they conceded less than 20 runs, they are William Lillywhite
Frederick William Lillywhite (13 June 1792 – 21 August 1854) was an English first-class cricketer during the game's roundarm era. One of the main protagonists in the legalisation of roundarm, he was one of the most successful bowlers of his ...
, Edmund Hinkly and John Wisden
John Wisden (5 September 1826 – 5 April 1884) was an English cricketer who played 187 first-class cricket matches for three English county cricket teams, Kent, Middlesex and Sussex. His father, William, was a builder. He attended Brighton's ...
. The best bowling figures in an innings where the records are complete is Samuel Butler's 10 for 38 for Oxford University v Cambridge University in 1871.
*William Lillywhite has taken the most wickets in a match, with 18 for the Players v Gentlemen in the Gentlemen v Players
Gentlemen v Players was a long-running series of cricket matches that began in July 1806 and was abolished in January 1963. It was a match between a team consisting of amateurs (the Gentlemen) and a team consisting of professionals (the Players ...
fixture of 1837, though his exact bowling figures are not recorded.
List A
* Highest team total: 368/2 (50 overs) by Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...
v Middlesex, 2014
* Lowest team total: 57 (27.2 overs) by Essex
Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
v Lancashire, 1996
* Highest individual innings: 187 * by Alex Hales
Alexander Daniel Hales (born 3 January 1989) is an English cricketer. He is a right-handed opening batter who represented the England cricket team across all formats and played domestically for Nottinghamshire. He made his One Day International ...
for Nottinghamshire v Surrey, 2017
* Best bowling in an innings: 7/22 by Jeff Thomson
Jeffrey Robert Thomson (born 16 August 1950) is a former Australian cricketer. Known as "Thommo", he is one of the fastest bowlers in the history of cricket; he bowled a delivery with a speed of 160.6 km/h against the West Indies in Perth ...
for Middlesex v Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...
, 1981
Twenty20
* Highest team total: 223/7 (20 overs) by Surrey v Middlesex, 2021
* Lowest team total: 90 (14.4 overs) by Kent
Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
v Middlesex, 2015
* Highest individual innings: 102 not out
In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress.
Occurrence
At least one batter is not out at ...
by Stephen Eskinazi for Middlesex v Essex, 2021
* Best bowling in an innings: 6/24 by Tim Murtagh for Surrey v Middlesex, 2005
All records correct as of .
See also
*List of cricket grounds by capacity
The following is a list of cricket Ground (cricket), grounds, ordered by Seating capacity, capacity, . Cricket venues with a capacity of at least 1,000 are included.
Active stadiums Capacity over 100,000
Capacity of 50,000 to 99,999
Capacity ...
*Lists of stadiums
The following are lists of stadiums throughout the world. Note that horse racing and motorsport venues are not included at some pages, because those are not stadiums but sports venues.
Combined lists
*List of stadiums by capacity
* List of c ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
* Rice, Jonathan (2001). ''One Hundred Lord's Tests''. Methuen Publishing Ltd.
* Wright, Graeme (2005). ''Wisden at Lord's''. John Wisden & Co. Ltd.
External links
*
Profile – Lord's
at the CricInfo
ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a Sports journalism, sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including Liveblogging, liveblogs and sco ...
{{Authority control
1814 establishments in England
Sports venues completed in 1814
St John's Wood
Buildings and structures in the City of Westminster
History of Middlesex
Marylebone Cricket Club
Middlesex County Cricket Club
Cricket grounds in London
Cricket grounds in Middlesex
Cricket in London
Sports venues in London
Sport in the City of Westminster
English cricket venues in the 18th century
English cricket venues in the 19th century
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
Test cricket grounds in England
Venues of the 2012 Summer Olympics
Olympic archery venues
Real tennis venues
Archery venues
Tourist attractions in London
Tourist attractions in the City of Westminster
Cricket grounds in England
History museums in London
1814 in London