Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) – Lord’s Cricket Ground

Lord’s Cricket Ground is the Home of Cricket and is an iconic venue famous the world over. In order to keep Lord’s at the forefront of the latest developments in the sport, the Marylebone Cricket Club opted to invest in a floodlighting system. Turnberry was then tasked with securing planning permission for a design that would be both sensitive to the ground’s listed structures and as visually unobtrusive as possible to the residents in the surrounding neighbourhood.

In order to prepare this application, Turnberry produced a world floodlighting report, emphasising the increased need for floodlighting in the modern cricket landscape. This research delivered comparative analyses from solutions at grounds around the world. Lord’s required floodlighting that adhered to the highest possible light quality stipulation but also had minimised impact on the local environment. The report concluded that current engineering solutions employed around the world were inadequate for supplying all the needs of the Marylebone Cricket Club.

To identify a new approach, Turnberry worked with Abacus, a cutting-edge lighting engineering company, ultimately developing a retractable solution never before employed in world cricket. Turnberry then formulated a planning strategy for the Cricket Ground, negotiating the terms of planning permission with Westminster City Council and organising public consultations. After securing a one-year temporary solution, Turnberry was granted a five-year lease for the innovative permanent solution, allowing Lord’s to host the World Twenty20 tournament in 2009.

Turnberry has continued to advise Marylebone Cricket Club regarding the renewal of the lease for the retractable floodlights and other planning issues.