On 4-5 September 1813 the MCC played Epsom in the final match at Lord's Middle Ground at North Bank — Thomas Lord's second cricket ground, opened only four years earlier in 1809. The site had been compulsorily purchased for an extension of the Regent's Canal. The closure forced Lord to find a third site, which he duly opened on St John's Wood Road in 1814 — the present Lord's.
The Regent's Canal scheme had been authorised by Parliament in 1812. Compulsory purchase of the Middle Ground was an inevitable consequence.
The Middle Ground at North Bank had been opened in May 1809 as a hasty replacement for Dorset Square. Within four years the canal commissioners had served notice for compulsory purchase: the Regent's Canal needed to cut through the site to link the City Road basin to the Paddington branch. The September 1813 MCC v Epsom match was the last on the ground; the closure was reported in the cricket press with some bitterness, since Lord had only just established the new site as a major venue. Lord secured the St John's Wood Road site over the following winter.
May 1809
Middle Ground opens at North Bank
1812
Regent's Canal Act passed
4-5 Sep 1813
Final match: MCC v Epsom
22 Jun 1814
St John's Wood Road ground opens
Lord's St John's Wood Road site — the present ground — opened on 22 June 1814. The Middle Ground site was cut by the canal and is now occupied by Lord's Tunnel and the surrounding streets.
The second of three Lord's ground closures — and the most rapid: just four years between opening and shutting.
The Middle Ground's brief life is the most-overlooked phase of Lord's history. Many of the great Regency matches — Beauclerk's 1810s, Osbaldeston's debut, the 1811 wide-ball law trials — were played there.
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1811-07-04
The 1811 Lord's season was the leanest of the Middle Ground years. With the Napoleonic blockade at its tightest, willow scarce, professionals diverted to militia service and the betting public's purses thin, only fourteen major matches were played at Lord's all summer. The 1811 season is the clearest measure of cricket's wartime contraction.
Officers vs Civilians
1812-12-15
By the close of 1812 cricket was being played regularly in both Madras and Bombay — the earliest documented fixtures in either Presidency. Garrison officers and civilian East India Company servants ran the matches; the Madras Gazette and Bombay Courier preserved the earliest scoresheets. The Calcutta game (documented 1804) had been joined by all three Presidency capitals.
Kent vs MCC
1813-09-09
On 9-10 September 1813 Kent played the MCC at the Vine, Sevenoaks — the first post-war major match at the historic Kent ground and the start of the Vine's revival as a regular major venue. The Vine had hosted little major cricket since 1808; the September 1813 fixture marked its return to the front rank.