Skip to content

Pavilion project

Visualisation of new SMCC pavilion as viewed from lower pitch (illustration and plans by Andy Matthews Studio)

Streatham and Marlborough is a wonderful cricket club, set on the beautiful Dulwich Common, but its home is desperately in need of updating.

The current building is at the end of its serviceable life, and no longer provides an adequate, functioning home to a club that provides a diverse community in south London with cricket and a home.

Rough estimates from experts say that repairs to the current building – including but not limited to replacing pitched roofs, dealing with sub-floor damp, complete replacement of central heating and hot water systems, refurbishment of shower and changing room facilities, foundation work and gutter replacement – would cost the club more than £500,000.

Visualisation of new SMCC pavilion as viewed from near car park (illustration and plans by Andy Matthews Studio)

And even then, they would merely be a sticking plaster that would need constant remedial work. In short, it is not feasible to undertake major repairs – and the solution is to build a new clubhouse.

Visualisation of the new club room (illustration and plans by Andy Matthews Studio)

The club has spent more than a decade working on a solution, raising hundreds of thousands of pounds in grants from the likes of Southwark Council (Active Southwark Olympic Legacy Grant), the London Marathon Charitable Trust and the ECB. With the help of favourable terms on cricket club-specific loans, the club’s own cash and a grassroots fundraising drive that is ongoing (please donate if you can), a pre-planning application has been submitted to set the ball rolling on the biggest project in this club’s 200-year history.

Visualisation of the new pavilion – aerial view (illustration and plans by Andy Matthews Studio)

Latest updates – 10 March 2024

Design & architecture

  • Our planning permission application was submitted in January 2024 and is available for public comment. To date, there have been 108 supporting comments and only 2 objections, one of which was actually a supporting comment. Please do add further messages of support.
  • Design and architecture work is continuing in the background while we wait for the outcomes of our grant applications (see below)

Club re-structure

  • In January 2024, we became incorporated as Streatham & Marlborough Cricket Club Limited. This step was necessary in order to apply for funding from the Communities Ownership Fund (see below).
  • We are in the process of setting up the subsidiary trading company, and of transferring assets from the old structure (which was an unincorporated Community Amateur Sports Club)

Grant applications

  • In January, after hundreds of hours of collective work by our team of volunteers, we submitted what we believe to be a strong application for a £706,000 grant from the Community Ownership Fund. We expect to learn the outcome at some point in April.
  • Also in January, we submitted an application for a £50,000 from the Southwark Community Energy Fund. We expect to learn the outcome in early May.
  • As a separate project, we have also submitted small grant applications to Sport England and Surrey Cricket Foundation/ECB to fund critical refurbishments to our smaller changing room building known as St Gabriel’s.

Fundraising

Community engagement and support

  • On 11th March, we are presenting an overview of the project at Southwark south region Empowering Communities community forum, and will be inviting questions and comments from attendeees.
  • In January, we collected 24 letters of support for our grant applications. Supporters include our local MP, multiple local councillors, and a London Assembly member, the neighbouring tennis and golf clubs, the Dulwich Estate, the London Wildlife Trust, local schools, five other community groups that already use or are interested in using the building, and six other local organisations who we partner with in delivering cricket to the community
  • In January, we engaged with tens of thousands of members of the local community via various online forums and facebook groups
  • We welcome further feedback and expressions of interest from other community groups in using the new building via this online feedback form or by emailing us at enquiries.smcricketclub@gmail.com

Donate now

We have a ring-fenced fund where you can make contributions by bank transfer at any point. No contribution is too small: every penny you give will go towards a new home for hundreds of men, women and children who love playing cricket at Streatham & Marlborough.

  • Account name: Streatham & Marlborough Cricket Club Pavilion Fund
  • Sort code: 20-80-57
  • Account number: 00231770

Pavilion design

Floorplan, by Andy Matthews Studio

 

Site plan, by Andy Matthew Studio

 

The new pavilion will incorporate new changing rooms and showers, two small rooms for officials to change (can also be used for females playing in male games or vice versa) and disabled access in line with modern building standards as well as ECB and safeguarding requirements. This is the planned layout for the Phase 2-3 pavilion. The upgraded club room is expected to be glass-fronted, connecting better to the spectator area between the pitches and allowing views of both pitches.

The facility will be open for other community groups to use and for community social event hirings.  An additional phase of the project could see the changing block (known as “St Gabriel’s”) be removed allowing us to extend the playing area on the top pitch.

Why we need your help

 

Unsurprisingly, none of this is cheap. We have economised the build by reducing the square footage from previous designs and utilising a range of professional skills from across the club’s network to save on fees. But with rising building costs, some cannot be mitigated.

As you can see from the above charts, we are trying to raise at least £54,000 (including £10,000 of donation-matching from Sport England) to show our final granting bodies that we are serious about this – and we absolutely are! So please help us if you can by donating now, or getting involved in the Pavilion Fundraising Taskforce by emailing James Gray on james.s.gray@gmail.com.

Please note that the refurbishments to our smaller building, St Gabriel’s, are now being treated as a separate project with its own grant funding applications.

How else can I help?

If you don’t feel able to make a financial contribution there are plenty of other ways you can play a part. Here are some suggestions:

  • Could you complete a sponsored event to raise some funds?
  • Do you have skills that could be used in either the fundraising or construction process?
  • Do you have contacts that could help us source cheaper building materials?
  • Could you organise or contribute to putting on an event that would raise money for the pavilion?
  • Would your employer be interested in sponsoring the club or making a donation?

These are just a few of the many things you could do to help out. If you think you could do one of the above or have your own idea of how you could contribute then please get in touch via our main club mailbox (enquiries.smcricketclub@gmail.com).

Why is a cricket club important?

One of the great societal challenges in modern Britain is high levels of inactivity.

In December 2021, the Committee on a National Plan for Sport and Recreation published a report that called on the Government to:

  • Ensure that local authorities provide adequate facilities for sport and physical activity
  • Increase funding and support for organisations delivering sport and recreation to underrepresented groups (women and girls, disabled people, ethnic minorities, the elderly and people from less affluent backgrounds)
  • Make PE a core national curriculum subject in schools, to tackle inactivity in children
  • Encourage schools and colleges to develop closer links with local sports clubs to tackle drop-out from physical activity
  • Ensure that sports club encourage a welcoming and inclusive environment with rigorous safeguarding measures

At SMCC, we are already delivering on every one of the above priorities.

Outdoor sport facilities are in short supply and high demand in inner London. Through the club’s ongoing existence, we protect and maintain the facilities at our home ground so that future generations will continue to enjoy them. By renting pitches in multiple local parks, we also help financially support these facilities for all to use.

With over 130 female members and growing rapidly each year, we are at the forefront of the popularisation of girls’ and women’s cricket. The number of teenage girls playing regularly in senior cricket is increasing each year, which is a trend we’re seeing in our boys’ section as well. We have squads for every year-group up to Under 17s as well as a Development XI (teens + young adults) and most of these teens also play in senior teams.

Around 28% of our players are of ethnicities other than white, and around 5% of our players have a disability, including two players who play disability cricket for England. Our membership includes players of all ages from 5 to 65+, and every year we assist numerous players and parents on low incomes with our “ability to pay is not a barrier to play” policy.

Our most recent survey of parents suggests that we have created a highly welcoming environment for all, but we also have robust safeguarding training and processes in place and we thoroughly investigate all reported incidences, taking swift and decisive action on the very rare occasions when it is required.

This year we expect around 150 adults and 350 children to stay active and healthy with us. With indoor training from October to April, then outdoor training, junior cricket camps and over 400 cricket matches in the summer, we estimate that we deliver over 49,000 hours of organised cricket activity per year in all.

But physical activity is only one of the benefits that we provide. Sport also helps to tackle another big societal challenge – mental wellbeing.

In the words of Sport England, “there’s plenty of evidence that taking part in physical activity can have a profound and positive impact on mental wellbeing.”

SMCC helps people new to the area to make friends and become part of the community. For some members, we also provide a vital social support network in times of personal difficulty and loneliness.

We promote a “cricket is a game for everyone” message and we pro-actively support initiatives such as the LGBTQ “Rainbow Laces” campaign.

Counting families, partners and social members, we are a sporting and social hub for at least 1,000 members of the local community, bringing together young and old, male and female, wealthy and disadvantaged and a huge range of religions and ethnicities.

Many of our players and parents become friends for life, and we believe that we play an essential role in bringing and binding our local community together.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Form for adding yourself to our email newsletter

Follow us

Streatham & Marlborough Facebook Group

Streatham & Marlborough on Twitter / SMCC Women on Twitter

Streatham & Marlborough on Instagram / SMCC Women on Instagram


Visit our sponsors

Hiyacar logo (one of our lovely sponsors)