A match in progress at the Oval cricket grounds in Kennington. Built on Duchy of Cornwall land the distinctive oval shape was created c.1789 when a new road was laid out on land held by nurserymen William Malcolm and James & George Mitchelson. In 1790 it was leased to the Mitchelsons as a market garden and later various housing plans were rejected by the Duchy. In 1845 Mr Houghton of Brixton Hill proposed a ‘Subscription Cricket Ground’ and was accepted as the leasee for the Montpellier Club for 31 years lease at \u00c2\u00a3120 pa. The club playing the first game in March of that year, after 10,000 turves from Tooting Common had been laid by Mr South a greengrocer. The Surrey Club, founded in the Horn Tavern 4 months earlier, initially shared the ground before becoming the leaseholder. This picture shows the pavilion built in 1895-7 by the architect Thomas Muirhead. Photograph from Kelly’s Directories, c.1905.Ref: LBL\/DAS\/RL\/1\/3\/1\/ p.98<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A match in progress at the Oval cricket grounds in Kennington. Built on Duchy of Cornwall land the distinctive oval shape was created c.1789 when a new road was laid out on land held by nurserymen William Malcolm and James & George Mitchelson. In 1790 it was leased to the Mitchelsons as a market garden […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9,29,270,6,59,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1901-1925","category-buildings-architecture","category-kennington","category-south_london_news_cuttings_vols","category-photograph","category-recreation-and-leisure","category-sport"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n