The Lord’s - 1 st of the three Holy Grail’s
For any cricket-fan, lover or follower; Lord’s is the Holy Grail of sorts. The walk from the Underground station at St. John’s Wood to the stadium is just about 10 mins, but as you catch a glimpse of the new and infamous media center while making your way to the South
Gate for the entrance to the tour, your mind will definitely start reeling into the memories of this iconic place.
 

The tour starts with a walk-through the immense collection and exhibition of various artifacts and collectibles in the Lord’s gallery, including the actual original Ashes urn. The tour guide gave us an insight into the little-known but quite influential love story behind the Ashes urn, which was quite interesting to listen to. Click of the below for details on this story, for the keen minded!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The love story behind the Ashes urn

The tour then led us through the majestic hallways at Lord’s and onto the home dressing room. The ones at Lord’s are quite nothing like any other dressing room. The rooms are massive and bordered with cushioned seats having its origins in Victorian architecture. A
huge centre-table is provided, apparently for discussions during the game. The wall is of-course lined with the famous Lord’s board, reserved for you name for scoring a hundred orgetting a 5-for at the Lord’s. This leads into the famous balconies which can house upto 5 people at a time.

The Home and Away dressing rooms have their own honours’ boards but unfortunately, we could not visit the Away dressing room due to an ongoing shoot with Michael Holding being scheduled at the same time. We missed soaking in the view from the balcony which witnessed the famous Ganguly-t-shirt saga.
 

Next up was the tour across the ground from the member’s Pavilion to the new media center. If you sit in one of the seats on the Pavilion side, you can distinctively make out the unmissable slope at the Lord’s. It runs across the pitch from the north end to the south with a drop of 2.5 metres.
 

Our curiosity about the reason behind this slope was answered when we found out that the ground was built on what used to be a hill with a duck pond. There have been calls for removing/levelling the slope but it still remains to be a significant factor in the intrigue that is playing at the Lord’s.

The last halt of the tour was the Lord’s Media Center. A work of modern architecture, the center stands at a height of almost 50 feet with support coming only from the two lift shafts. It has a capacity of housing over 100 journalists along with a radio and commentary
center. The view from the media center is one of a kind and no wonder it has been recognised as a work of art in the field of architecture.

Tour price – 27 GBP per person