How the new tavern counter in Lord's will look at night. Credit: WilkinsonEyre
Telegraph Sport can reveal exclusively what Lord's will look like for Ashes 2027 following a stunning £60m renovation of the Tavern and Allen Stands.
Marylebone Cricket Club held first consultation with members on Friday, detailing the designs of the well-known architectural firm. WilkinsonEyre, which is also overseeing the refurbishment of the Compton and Edrich stands, which opened in 2019. Robert Ebdon, director of MCC Estates, told Telegraph Sport that the projects were «really well received» by participants.
The upgrade will add 1,000 additional seats (700 at Tavern and 300 at Allen), bringing the capacity of the largest cricket ground in the country to 32,180. This is expected to cost the club around £60m.
same angle as the artist above. Photo: Alamy Stock Photo/Niels Kliim
“The vision is to keep the world class Lord alive,” Ebdon said. “Look around the ground, these are the obvious areas to work on now, the two oldest stands.
“This will provide Lord's members with world-class dining, but not just for them, and throughout the year, not just on cricket days. This is a great project that shows our sustainable ambition and makes the earth more accessible.»
What the new tavern looks like at Lord's will take care of its reconstruction. Photo: WilkinsonEyreThe Tavern Stand as it stands today. Photo: Phil Brown.
The Tavern Stand, built in 1968, will retain the main steel frame, eliminating 614 tons of embodied carbon. Ebdon said it was vital when designing the grandstands «that they help realize our sustainability ambitions» which include being carbon neutral by 2030 and zero carbon by 2040.
< p>The lower tiers will be upgraded with the addition of a third, pushing the stand back against the wall bordering St. John's Wood Road, as the adjacent Mound stand does. This will give the earth a striking new look when entering through the famous Gate of Grace. The grandstand itself will feature cricket-view bars, as well as improved access both by elevators and stairs.
The most eye-catching feature is the cricket-inspired roof of the Tavern grandstand. cradle.
“We are very proud that Lords is a cricket ground and not a stadium. It's a collection of different architectural styles,” Ebdon said. “There was a book called Pavilions of Splendour, an architectural history, which shows that different Stands have different styles, and part of that is that each Stand has a very distinctive roof.
“You see it at Warner, Compton and Edrich [stands], which is what we've done over the last decade. The new tavern stand has a really spectacular rooftop as well as Allen. You will see that there is a connection between them, but they are different.”
Allen's Stand and the Lord's Pavilion. Author: Getty Images/Alex Davidson.
The Allen stand, built in 1935. , is the oldest in Lord's and will be completely demolished and rebuilt. The new design adds a third tier and a roof, giving 300 additional seats without increasing the overall stand height.
One of the three large screens in the ground will be moved from the Allen stand to the area between the two stands, freeing up space. The gap between Allen and the pavilion will remain the same size, but the bridge connecting them will be moved one floor higher, meaning it can be used on big match days as it is no longer in the players and match officials area, which means sealed to fight corruption. Ebdon said the boundary connection between the Allen booth and the pavilion was key.
England playing South Africa at the Lord's Tournament in July 1907. Credit: Allsport/Hulton Archive
«The pavilion is a Grade II listed building,» Ebdon said. “We must respect heritage. These structures will not be crowded in the pavilion, you need to give it a place. The roof of the new tavern counter will be the same height as the mound counter next to it. It then drops down to a level below the Allen, which is no higher than what it is now, despite the extra row of seats.
“A lighter bridge to a higher level makes the pavilion more visible and also allows us to restore some of the terracotta elements on the side of the pavilion.” competition between half a dozen architectural firms. Director Sam Wright led the design, as did the Compton and Edrich stands, which were widely acclaimed successes and earned WilkinsonEyre a Civic Trust award.
>Media Center and remodeled Edrich booth Credit: INPHO/Shutterstock/Ben Whitley
The ambitious project has yet to overcome a number of hurdles. Consultations with MCC members will continue until next May's AGM, by which time the club hopes to have building approval from Westminster City Council (application due in December). If entrants are approved, preparatory work will begin at the end of the 2024 season, with full-scale work to begin in the winter of 2025 and 2026.
In the summer of 2026, it is expected that spectators will be able to sit in the stands even if they are not completed.
The project will complete a busy period of redesign at Lord's, with the Warner Stand being remodeled between 2015 and 2017 , followed by changes to the stands of Compton and Edrich. Now the oldest stand on earth is Kurgan, which was built as recently as 1987, and the stand appeared eight years later.
In 1993, Lord's hosted a one-day international tournament between England and Australia Photo: Allsport/Howard Boylan
Ebdon said the next project would likely be «not very sexy» — an underground cellar on a rustic food plot behind the Edrich booth, allowing for a service area behind the house.
«We will continue to improve all of our booths,» said Ebdon. «But we're proud of the functionality — with bars and other amenities — we've added over the past decade.»
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