Cricket: MCC members to be surveyed on £150m Lord's redevelopment - plan

Marylebone Cricket Club has issued a survey to its members asking for their views on the potential £150m redevelopment of Lord’s before the final decision in September.

In what has been described as “the largest piece of analysis ever produced in the club’s 230-year history”, MCC members will be asked to choose between two separate plans to modernise the world’s most famous cricket ground in north London.

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Under the first – the club’s own Masterplan for Lord’s – the existing Nursery End would be moved towards Wellington Road with the addition of up to 2,000 extra seats, while the alternative, which has been produced by architect David Morley, would involve a rebuilt Tavern and Allen stands and a new Nursery End pavilion that would be financed by the construction of two apartment blocks within the grounds at a cost of £150m.

The alternative, known as the Morley Plan, is the successor to the Vision for Lord’s plan that was originally proposed in 2009 by the investor Charles Rifkind. In 1999, his company Rifkind Associates acquired the lease for the disused railway tunnels at the Nursery End that could now be used to create parking spaces for 120 cars.

“A detailed study of two different development options has been put before MCC members, with a survey and wide-ranging consultation to take place in the coming weeks,” read a statement from the MCC.

“The choice facing MCC is effectively whether members are content to accept large-scale residential development within the Lord’s boundary in return for a cash injection, or pay for the development of the entire ground from club resources but without accepting residential development.”

The consultation process will also include a presentation on both options at four different venues: Lord’s on 19 June, Old Trafford on 20 June, Trent Bridge on 21 June and Bristol on 22 June. The MCC committee will then meet at the end of July to discuss their options before calling a special general meeting at the end of September to make a final decision.

“MCC would like Lord’s to continue to position itself to be the best ground in the world to play and watch cricket,” the MCC chairman, Gerald Corbett, said. “The review is already the result of much consultation and is intended to be as fair as possible.”