A railway station at Lord's, enabling spectators to walk straight to newly designed stands, is one of a number of projects under consideration as part of the £200million redevelopment of the ground. An indoor school, a real tennis court, banqueting facilities or a car park could also be built in the disused railway tunnel that runs beneath the Nursery End.

The tunnel, which was part of the Marylebone to Aylesbury train line, was constructed in 1897 and bears testimony to the expertise of Victorian architects and builders. This runs 200 metres from beneath Wellington Hospital to St John's Wood Road and extends 38 metres under the Nursery Ground. The original station at Lord's was demolished in 1939.

Keith Hague, the chief executive of Wellington Hospital, is keen to enter into negotiations with MCC with a view to opening a sports injuries clinic or gym at one end of the tunnel. The endless possibilities for utilising 40,000 square feet will be discussed by the Lord's Masterplan architect, soon to be appointed by the club.

A brief has been sent to five architects, including Herzog & de Meuron, which designed the Olympic Stadium in Beijing, giving them six weeks to outline detailed plans for the redevelopment of Lord's, which will take in five new stands. The committee to decide upon the final choice will be chaired by Sir John Egan, a former chief executive of BAA and of Jaguar.

“I would not want to live next door to Twickenham, but Lord's is a beautiful and airy place and provides huge opportunity,” he said. “It would be quite easy to copy the design of the existing stands, but I do not know what the designers will come up with. We shall need to improve the entrances, create better circulatory space and there is no purpose in building a good hotel without a first-class restaurant. I presume that the Wellington Road perimeter wall will have to come down. If Lord's loses its second Test of the summer, redevelopment will become even more important.”

No bodies, rats or even inebriated MCC members were discovered in the tunnel by RLP, the developers, when it acquired the space from Railtrack almost ten years ago. MCC owns the turf above the tunnel to a depth of 18in and erected temporary hospitality marquees because it could not build beneath the surface.

The architects will consider constructing apartments, a hotel or hospitality and leisure facilities for members. The market rate for property in St John's Wood is £2,000 per square foot. Although apartments may be visible from the pavilion, the view of the treeline that was so treasured and protected by Gubby Allen will disappear because of the rebuilding of the Compton and Edrich Stands at the Nursery End.

Planning permission for all the improvements to the ground will have to be granted by Westminster City Council and approval given by MCC members whose main concerns are increasing capacity to 35,000-40,000 and introducing retractable floodlights. Jack Bailey, a former MCC secretary, said: “In my time, in the 1970s and 80s, development was not considered because the land was not available from British Rail.”

One of the reasons why MCC is so keen to redevelop Lord's is to ensure that the second Test match of the summer to be held there is retained under the new staging agreements, which are being discussed by the ECB this week.

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