LORD'S THAT DOES NOT BELONG TO ANY LORD OR NOBLEMAN

The famous Lord's Cricket Ground, home to Middlesex County Cricket Club and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), in London was not founded by any Lord or nobleman.




The ground is named after a wine merchant and Cricketer Thomas Lord. Interestingly, the current Lord's ground is also not the original ground. The modern Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London, is actually the third location to bear the name.


1. Lord's Old Ground (1787–1810)
Location: Dorset Fields in Marylebone (where Dorset Square stands today).

Lord leased the land and staged the very first match here in May 1787 between the White Conduit Club and Middlesex. Shortly after, the members of the club formed the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), making this their first official home. However, as London expanded, the landlord raised the rent, forcing Lord to look elsewhere.




2. Lord's Middle Ground (1811–1813)
Location: North Road, Marylebone (near the Regent's Park canal area).



Lord relocated the club here, famously digging up the original, high-quality turf from the Old Ground and re-laying it at the Middle Ground so the playing conditions wouldn't change. This location was incredibly short-lived with only three matches played. The British Parliament decided to cut the new Regent's Canal directly through his playing field, forcing him to move yet again.

3. Lord's New Ground (1814–Present)
Location: St John's Wood (the current, world-famous site). It was just a farmland with a few duck ponds.



Lord moved the original turf one final time to this location, opening the ground in 1814. He continued running it until 1825 when he attempted to sell the lease for housing development to secure his retirement. To save the ground from being destroyed by real estate developers, a wealthy MCC member named William Ward bought the lease from Lord for £5,000, ensuring it remained the permanent home of world cricket.


A Quirky Wine Merchant Legacy: Thomas Lord's background as a wine merchant never quite left the ground's DNA. To this day, Lord's remains one of the incredibly rare international cricket venues where spectators are officially permitted to bring their own alcohol (specifically wine, champagne, or beer) into the ground on match days.

WHAT ABOUT THE MIDDLESEX COUNTY??

Middlesex is a curious county that doesnt exist BUT has its own County Cricket Club and also Football team.

Middlesex is a "ghost county"—it was officially abolished as an administrative council more than 60 years ago, yet its identity remains fiercely preserved through sport, culture, and postcodes.

Historically, Middlesex was one of the traditional counties of England, dating back to the Anglo-Saxon era (the name literally means "Middle Saxons"). However, as London aggressively expanded in the 19th and 20th centuries, it slowly swallowed Middlesex whole.

The final blow came with the London Government Act of 1963, which officially dissolved the Middlesex County Council in 1965, absorbing almost all of its territory into what we now call Greater London (forming boroughs like Harrow, Enfield, Brent, and Hounslow).

If you look at the club's crest, it features three seaxes (notched, curved Anglo-Saxon swords) topped by a Saxon crown—a direct visual link to the ancient Kingdom of the Middle Saxons that existed over a millennium ago.


Major professional football clubs that are globally famous as "London clubs"—such as Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, and Brentford—were all technically founded within the historic boundaries of Middlesex. If you go back to early 20th-century newspaper archives, matches between Arsenal and Chelsea were regularly referred to as "Middlesex derbies."

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