Patrick Comerford
I indulged in a little cricket nostalgia or history in Dublin and London last month, with a return visit to Leinster Cricket Club in Rathmines just before Christmas, which I recalled HERE yesterday, and a visit earlier in December to the original site of the Lord’s cricket ground in Dorset Square in Marylebone.
Marylebone Cricket Club was founded in 1787, taking as its home a cricket ground set up by the ambitious entrepreneur Thomas Lord (1755-1832).
Lord acquired seven acres (28,000 m2) off Dorset Square in May 1787, with the support of George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea, and Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond, two of the leading members of the White Conduit Club.
White Conduit Club relocated there and soon afterwards formed, or merged into, the new Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).
The first match known to have been played at Lord’s Old Ground was White Conduit Club v Middlesex on Monday 21 May 1787. Other accounts say the first match there was on 31 May, between Middlesex and Essex.
The following year, MCC laid down a Code of Laws requiring the wickets to be pitched 22 yards apart and detailing how players could be given out. The laws were adopted throughout the game – and to this day MCC remains the custodian and arbiter of laws relating to cricket around the world.
So, I suppose it could be said that Dorset Square in Marylebone is the home of cricket.
The world's oldest continually-played fixture that continues to this day – the annual Eton v Harrow match – was first played on the grounds in 1805, when Lord Byron was on the losing Harrow side. The inaugural Gentlemen v Players match took place at the Old Ground in July 1806.
Lord’s Old Ground was used by MCC for major matches until 1810, after which a dispute about rent caused Lord to relocate. The final fixture was played on 17 August 1810.
Lord relocated in 1811 to Lord’s Middle Ground, a site near Regent’s Park. However, Lord lost that venue too when the land was requisitioned for the Regent’s Canal, which was cut through the site. In 1814, Lord opened the present Lord’s Cricket Ground, formerly a duckpond in St John’s Wood.
During those moves, the club moved everything, including the turf. Lord’s has since become world-renowned and remains the MCC home to this day.
Dorset Square as it is now was the central feature of an urban layout planned by the Portman Estate (1815-1820) after it was bought from Lord. Since then, the square has changed little architecturally.
Although the site is built over, commemorative plaques on a hut in the square's garden recall the first home of cricket in Marylebone.
The nearest Tube station is 200 metres away at Baker Street, and the nearest train station Marylebone, also about 200 metres away.
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