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When you think of London’s classic sports venues, a few legendary names likely come to mind. Wembley, Twickenham, Wimbledon, the Olympic Park – all regularly host plenty of the planet’s most famous sporting events.
And now one of those celebrated venues is getting a huge, multi-million-pound makeover. Lord’s cricket ground, the base of the ECB (England and Wales Cricked Board) and the ‘home of cricket’, has revealed plans to overhaul two of its stands.
Lord’s will pump a whopping £61.8 million into revamping its Tavern and Allen stands. This’ll result in increased capacity for the St John’s Wood stadium as a whole (by about 1,100) as well as improved catering, hospitality and accessibility.
The makeover will also involve adding an extra tier to both stands. The Allen stand, which dates back to the 1930s, will be demolished and rebuilt, while the Tavern will see an extra floor built on top of the existing stand.
And it’s the Tavern stand’s new top that’ll be most eye-catching. Designed by fancy architects WilkinsonEyre, it is apparently ‘inspired by the shape and ribbed construction of a series of upturned traditional slip cradles’. Here are some renders of what it’ll look like.
The plans for Lord’s have been approved members of Marylebone Cricket Club and planning consent was given back in April. Construction will start in September (the end of the cricket season), and it’s expected to be complete by 2027, with construction pausing temporarily during the 2025 and 2026 cricket seasons.
This isn’t the only time Lord’s has had a revamp in recent years. The stadium’s Compton and Edrich stands were subject to a £51 million glow-up that was completed in 2021.
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