Lord's Cricket Ground is set for a 200-million-pound facelift, owners Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) announced here Wednesday. The north-west London venue, the self-styled 'home of cricket', is one of the sport's most famous grounds with the Victorian pavilion - whose exterior will remain unaltered despite the proposed changes to other parts of the ground - a particular landmark.
Now, following consultation with their 18,000 members, MCC have asked 18 leading architects to present their plans for a new-look Lord's which will see five stands redeveloped and could also include plans for a hotel, a new academy and retractable floodlights.
Such is the scale of what is being proposed, the redevelopment as a whole could take a decade to complete. MCC also hope that the ground's relatively modest capacity, in comparison to leading grounds in Australia and India, will be increased by some 10,000 to more than 38,000 without spoiling the atmosphere of Lord's.
"There was overwhelming backing to support the improvement of Lord's for future generations of cricketers, cricket fans and of course members," said MCC project director David Batt.
"To achieve this we are in the process of appointing a masterplan architect who will be tasked with preparing a development plan which will provide an overall approach to the design and layout for the entire Lord's site. "A preliminary brief has been sent out to a number of UK and international practices and a shortlist of architects will be announced in the next few weeks," he added.
Of the five stands listed for redevelopment two - the Compton and Edrich stands - (named after the Middlesex and England duo of Denis Compton and Bill Edrich) were only erected in the 1990s.
Previous redevelopment of the ground has tended to take place in piecemeal fashion but MCC have been encouraged by Westminster Council, the local planning authority, to take a more rounded, longer-term, approach. It is anticipated that each stand will take 18 months to construct with funding coming in part from the sale of debenture tickets and the building of flats at the Nursery End of the ground.
Planning permission is expected to take 12 months to be granted and work must commence within five years of that. Lord's currently stages two of the seven Tests - split between two touring teams - played in an English season, with visiting teams keen to play at the historic venue.