The New Development

The evolving proposals have been designed by award winning architects HOK and will secure the ground’s status as a world-class sports venue.

The design of the stand and hotel can be broken down into four sections:

Pavilion and Piazza
Hotel
Grandstand
Materials and Greening:

Pavilion and Piazza
Under the proposal, the existing Surrey Tavern will be removed to create an open piazza between Harleyford Road and the Pavilion. This will not only reveal the pavilion as the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the stadium, but will create a sense of space all the way up Harleyford Road to the tube station.

Hotel
The hotel will be positioned to the right of the pavilion, looking from Oval Tube, where the existing forecourt car park is. It is closely integrated with the proposed new grandstand and concourses, and will offer around 170 rooms distributed over four floors. All car parking for the hotel will be underneath the building. The design of the hotel façade has been created to work with the existing buildings on Kennington Oval, and will be light coloured in appearance.

Bowling Green Street

The hotel is made up of two wings, one following the course of Kennington Oval Lane, and the other following the circular boundary of the cricket rope. Between these two wings is a terrace with views to the pitch and an internal atrium. On match days this atrium becomes part of the concourse, and is a break-out space to the hotel on non-match days.

In addition to the rooms, the hotel has a restaurant that is located on the fourth floor of the wing adjacent to the pitch, and looks northward across the cricket ground towards Westminster. There are NO conference facilities in the hotel.

Grandstand
The Grandstand will add anextra 2,000 seats to the capacity of the ground, and the hospitality suites are designed to change into hotel rooms on non-match days. The upper tier of seating covers the plan area of the wing adjacent to the pitch, and is shaded by a cantilevering canopy in steel and timber with a standing seam roof.

Green02

Materials and Greening
Along the site boundary, the existing high wall is reinstated in part. Where it comes in front of the hotel elevation, the height of the wall reduces and the brick work is surmounted by black metal railings. Planting behind these railings soften the wall and introduce seasonal variety. While the height of the two wings of the hotel are similar, the treatment of each wing reflects their location.
The wing following the line of Kennington Oval Lane is characterised by French windows punched into a lime rendered façade. The façade is modelled by projecting pilasters with simplified capitols and mouldings. The wing adjacent to the pitch has a lighter treatment with predominantly clear glass pitch side, and translucent glass on the opposite side to prevent overlooking of the residential properties opposite.

Why this Design?

A lot of time has been spent designing the new stand and hotel, which will enhance the Brit Oval as a focal point and attraction to the local area. The final design considered:

Density: many buildings in the surrounding area are 4-5 storeys; our proposal
matches the flats opposite (5 storeys)
Providing enough hotel rooms to finance the stand redevelopment
Ensuring the level of sunlight and daylight received by residents of Lockwood House
and Lohmann House is maintained at good levels for a dense urban area
Removing the Surrey Tavern and to improve views of the Pavilion
Dramatically improve the appearance of the area with modern design and light coloured surfaces
An environmentally friendly, low energy use development
Replacing the ground’s brick boundary with the hotel’s activity to create a full street
To match the existing curve of Kennington Oval
All activity that is currently on the forecourt – car parking, food concessions, crowd movement etc will be brought inside, reducing noise pollution.
Queuing will no longer take place outside of residential properties, but towards
Harleyford Road.

In Summary

In summary, the proposals are for: