Kennington Oval

Kennington Oval is an international cricket ground in the borough of Lambeth and has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since it was opened in 1845. It was the first ground in England to host international Test cricket in September 1880. The ground is an anomaly among English cricket venues: it is shaped and named after the elliptical outline of the land itself, not after a landowner or a location.

2024

Kennington Oval

Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0

2024

Kennington Oval (Road)

Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0

Today

Kennington Oval

Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0

Beyond cricket, Kennington Oval became the birthplace of organised football and rugby in England. In 1870, it staged the first representative football match between England and Scotland. It hosted the first FA Cup final in 1872, as well as those between 1874 and 1892. In 1876, it held both the England v. Wales and England v. Scotland rugby international matches and, in 1877, rugby's first varsity match. The oval shape that gave it its name remains the defining feature of the ground and the neighbourhood.

The memorable oval shape of the ground dates back to c.1790 when an oval road was first laid around what was originally a cabbage garden and then a market garden. An 1818 map shows it as 'Poplar Grove' but it had become 'The Oval' by 1830. The name derives directly from geometry. Unlike the rectangular playing fields standard in the 1800s, the parcel of land itself was bounded by an elliptical perimeter. When the site was leased for cricket, the name followed the shape rather than commemorating a person or place.

The form came first, and purpose followed it. In 1844, the site of the Kennington Oval was a cabbage patch and market garden owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. The Duchy was willing to lease the land for the purpose of a cricket ground, and on 10 March 1845 the first lease was issued to Mr. William Houghton. The name was already fixed by then. Cricket adopted it, Surrey County Cricket Club took it as their home, and it has remained unchanged for nearly two centuries.

The Oval is built on part of the former Kennington Common. Cricket matches were played on the common throughout the early 18th century. The earliest recorded match was the London v Dartford match in June 1724. Yet this pastoral history masks darker uses. As the common was also used regularly for public executions of those convicted at the Surrey Assizes (it was the south London equivalent of Tyburn), cricket matches had moved away to the Artillery Ground by the 1740s. The ground that would become the Oval sat undeveloped for another century.

The Duchy issued the first lease to William Houghton, then president of the Montpelier Cricket Club, to convert it into a subscription cricket ground, for 31 years at a rent of £120 per annum. The 10,000 grass turfs came from Tooting Common and were laid in the spring of 1845 allowing for the first cricket match to be played in May 1845. Surrey County Cricket Club was established in 1845. The ground's fortunes rose with the club's reputation.

Thanks to C.W. Alcock, the Secretary of Surrey from 1872 to 1907, the first Test match in England was played at The Oval in 1880 between England and Australia. The Oval thereby became the second ground to stage a Test, after the Melbourne Cricket Ground. In 1882, Australia won the Test by seven runs within two days. The Sporting Times printed a mocking obituary notice for English cricket, which led to the creation of the Ashes trophy. This single match transformed Kennington Oval from a regional venue into a global sporting landmark.

A tall Victorian gasometer, sited less than 50 metres beyond the north-eastern stadium wall, has been a dominating feature of the view from the ground since the mid 1800s. The skeletal but decorative wrought iron structure is a landmark in the area and has become an intrinsic part of The Oval's history and urban allure. The cricket commentator Henry Blofeld once said in a broadcast, "As the bowler runs in, it's so quiet you can hear the creak of the gasometer." What might have been demolished became an emblem of industrial heritage.

The ground has hosted sports beyond cricket. It hosted the first FA Cup final in 1872, as well as those between 1874 and 1892. In 1876, it held both the England v. Wales and England v. Scotland rugby international matches and, in 1877, rugby's first varsity match. It is one of only two English grounds (the other being Bramall Lane in Sheffield) to have hosted both Test cricket and international football matches, plus FA Cup finals. The Oval belongs to both cricket and football history.

Surrey CCC was founded on the evening of 18 August 1845 at the Horns Tavern in Kennington, South London, where around 100 representatives of various cricket clubs in Surrey agreed a motion put by William Denison. A further meeting at the Tavern on 22 October 1845 formally constituted the club. A lease on Kennington Oval, a former market garden, had been obtained from the Duchy of Cornwall by a Mr Houghton, and 70 members of the old Montpelier Cricket Club formed the nucleus of the new Surrey County club. The club and the ground grew together from that moment.

C.W. Alcock, the Secretary of Surrey from 1872 to 1907, was instrumental in bringing the first Test match to The Oval in 1880 between England and Australia. Alcock's vision—to make Kennington Oval the premier international cricket venue in England—was realised through this fixture. He was not a cricketer alone, but also a pioneering administrator who shaped the sport's institutions. Without his ambition and influence, the Oval might have remained a provincial ground.

At the end of the 2002 cricket season, Surrey started redeveloping the Vauxhall End. The development included demolishing the outdated Surridge, Fender, Jardine, and Peter May north stands, and creating in their place a single four-tier grandstand. This work was completed in May 2005 and increased ground capacity to around 23,000. The ground, once threatened by age and decay, began a transformation to meet modern sporting standards.

The project is part of a planned £50m long-term redevelopment of the ground by Surrey County Cricket Club which will see The Oval transformed into the largest cricket stadium in the western hemisphere, with a capacity of 40,000. The current pavilion was completed in time for the 1898 season. The iconic Victorian structure remains protected even as modern facilities surround it. The redevelopment honours the ground's history while positioning it for contemporary global cricket.

Kennington Oval is not, in the conventional sense, a street of houses or shops. It is a street defined by a single institution: the international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, which has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since it was opened in 1845. The ground itself occupies most of the actual oval, with the street name identifying both the parcel of land and the cricket venue it contains. Visitors arrive here for sport, not for daily living.

The final Test match of the English season is traditionally played there. The neighbourhood around Kennington Oval is mixed residential and commercial, shaped by the ground's enormous presence. Oval tube station serves the ground, with the main entrance 100 metres on your left on leaving the station. The ground is also a ten-minute walk from Vauxhall tube station which is served by the Victoria line. The street name has become inseparable from international cricket itself.