In May 1809 Thomas Lord, frustrated by his landlord Mr Portman's plan to raise the rent on his original Dorset Fields ground, opened a second ground at the North Bank in St John's Wood. The Middle Ground, leased from the Eyre family for eighty years, hosted St John's Wood Cricket Club through 1809-13 but was barely used by the MCC, who continued to play at the Old Ground until the 1810 lease expiry. Requisitioned in 1813 for the cutting of the Regent's Canal, the Middle Ground was abandoned and Lord moved his turf to a third site — the present Lord's — in 1814.
Thomas Lord had been the founder, owner and groundsman of the Dorset Fields ground since 1787. By the late 1800s the ground was MCC's home and the centre of metropolitan cricket. Lord's anxiety about the lease was justified — the Portman family had no intention of giving the cricketers favourable terms when London's expansion was making Marylebone land valuable.
Lord secured the Eyre lease in 1804 as insurance against the Portman expiry. He spent the winter of 1808-09 levelling, returfing and fencing the new site. He almost certainly hoped that MCC would relocate immediately, but the club was attached to Dorset Square and resisted.
Thomas Lord had opened his first ground at Dorset Fields in May 1787, on land leased from the Portman estate. By 1808 the Portman family, sensing the increasing value of land in Marylebone, indicated their intention to raise the rent significantly when the lease expired in 1810. Lord, who in 1804 had taken out an eighty-year lease on the Brick and Great Fields at North Bank in St John's Wood from the Eyre family, prepared the new ground through 1808 and opened it in time for the 1809 season. The Middle Ground was small, sloping and unprepossessing — a 'three acres of unevenness' according to one MCC member. Most damagingly, the MCC declined to relocate; the club continued to play its Lord's matches at Dorset Square. The St John's Wood Cricket Club used the Middle Ground regularly. Only three MCC matches are recorded as having been played there, all in 1813. In June 1813 Parliament's Act for the construction of the Regent's Canal cut directly through the site, and Lord was forced to move again. He persuaded the Eyre Estate to lease him a third parcel — half a mile north — and moved the turf, opening the present Lord's Cricket Ground in 1814 with an MCC v Hertfordshire match. The Middle Ground's brief and unloved tenure, 1809-13, is the lost middle chapter of Lord's history.
1804: Lord takes 80-year Eyre Estate lease at North Bank
Winter 1808-09: New ground prepared
May 1809: Middle Ground opens, used by St John's Wood Cricket Club
1809-12: MCC continues to play at Dorset Square
1813: MCC plays its first matches at the Middle Ground
Jun 1813: Parliament authorises the Regent's Canal through the site
1814: Lord moves turf to present Lord's; opens with MCC v Hertfordshire
1787
Lord opens Dorset Fields ground
1804
Lord secures 80-year lease at North Bank
May 1809
Middle Ground opens at St John's Wood
1810
Dorset Square lease expires
Jun 1813
Regent's Canal Act passes; site requisitioned
22 Jun 1814
Present Lord's opens with MCC v Hertfordshire
“Mr Lord, having lost his old ground, has formed a new one in St John's Wood, distant rather more than a mile from his late one.”
The Middle Ground was abandoned without ceremony in 1813 and the canal cut through the site in 1815-16. Thomas Lord himself recovered financially from the move, opened the present ground in 1814, and remained groundsman until selling the lease to William Ward in 1825. The Eyre family kept the freehold of the present Lord's ground and still own it today.
An unloved interim ground that served only as a holding pattern between Dorset Square and the modern Lord's, but kept MCC cricket in St John's Wood at a critical commercial moment.
The Middle Ground is a footnote in Lord's history but a critical commercial pivot. It kept MCC cricket in St John's Wood — establishing the neighbourhood association that the present Lord's still depends on — through the four-year window when Dorset Square was no longer available and the present site had not yet been acquired. Without it the institution might have moved out of central London entirely.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.