The Oval, London
Capacity: 27,500
Main Sport: Cricket
Just south of the river in London, The Oval is the second biggest cricket ground in the UK. A regular for international matches, I first visited the ground for a double header between Oval Invincibles and Welsh Fire in the Hundred 2025. Having visited Lords, the other big cricket ground in London, the summer before, The Oval had been high on our hit list.
The ground is near a couple of tube stations and we arrived at Vauxhall a couple of hours before the gates opened. This allowed us to meet up with my parents and uncle who were coming from different directions into the underground and overground station respectfully. There are quite a few restaurants in the locale but we settled on Market Place Football Vauxhall built in to the old arches. With a range of foods from pizzas to burgers to Mexican, there was something for everyone. I had a delicious Nigerian dish. From here it was only a 10min walk to the ground.
The Oval opened all the way back in 1845 although I am sure much has changed since then. A quick read of it’s Wikipedia page shows it hosted the first FA Cup final in 1872 and (although not officially recognised by FIFA) the first ever international football match. It has also seen rugby player here as well. However it is cricket it’s best known for both internationally and as home of Surrey.
We were sat in the JM Finn stand which in about 20 years old and had comfortable padded seats and a nice amount of cover. To our left was the iconic gasometer that I had seen many a time on TV. As the framework itself is now listed, they are now building luxury flats inside the structure which if nothing else will give great views in to the ground.
Around the ground there was a good range of food and drink outlets and I did like how they had redeveloped the area around the old pavillion where the shop could be found. On the day we were there the quality of cricket was very high with records being broken.
Getting away it was a simple walk back to the station and whilst we did get split from my uncle, the stress was more around the reliability of trains than the setup that worked well.
