Lord's Cricket Ground & Museum

Lord's Cricket Ground & Museum Review

If you can't manage to lay your hands on tickets for a cricket match, the next best thing is to take a tour of the spiritual home of this most English of games. Founded by Thomas Lord, the headquarters of the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) opens its "behind the scenes" areas to visitors. You can see the Long Room with cricketing art on display; the players' dressing rooms; and the world's oldest sporting museum, where the progress from gentlemanly village-green game to worldwide sport over 400 years is charted. Don't miss the prize exhibit: the urn containing the sport's most iconic trophy, the Ashes—the remains of a cricket bail (part of the wicket assembly) presented to the English captain in 1883, a jokey allusion to a newspaper's premature obituary for the death of English cricket published after the home team's defeat by Australia. The two nations still play for possession of the Ashes every two years. though only a replica actually changes hands these days. Tours are not available during major matches (it's offered during smaller "county" matches), but the museum remains open to match ticket holders.