Crowds back at The Oval

Category: Projects
Date Published: 7th February 2023
CONTACT: Billy Rollo, Steve Harvey

Surrey County Cricket Club’s ambitious plans to expand one of the world’s most famous and highly cherished sporting facilities have now been brought to life. The newly built One Oval Square adds a new dimension to the grounds and facilities of the Kia Oval, providing a standalone conferencing and hospitality suite and an extra 2,500 spectator seats.

These extra seats will enable the Kia Oval to further establish itself as one of the primary international cricket grounds as well as generating greater revenue for the club so that it can continue to compete strongly to attract the world’s best cricket players.

Each suite has its own fully equipped commercial kitchen and bar area to serve up to 800 guests for a banquet event. The existing Peter May stand has been extended to increase its capacity and to expand the ground floor concourse area with two new bars ensuring a covered area capable of holding up to 8000 people.

The First-floor level connects to the new 1845 Suite. Level 2 provides the New Duchy Suite, and the level 3 provides the new 900sqm Lock Terrace with its own bar and food servery area offering 360-degree views of the London skyline and an unrivalled view of the pitch.

The former Members Entrance to the Pavilion has been relocated rehousing the existing hand carved stone portico. The development has also seen the new Members Pavilion extended to provide a new wing to bring balance to the pitch side elevation, matching in the stone, brick and timber window and door detailing of the existing building.

At Pitch side, a more contemporary design was desired for the transformation of the existing stand into two new tiers of seating which appear to float above the Peter May stand. This was purposely done as SCCC did not want to have a series of columns obscuring views within existing seating areas. The pitch side is much more in keeping with traditional sporting venues with the use of metal cladding, concrete, and steel, giving a completely different feel to the outside.