What we do

THE MCC MUSEUM IS ONE OF THE OLDEST SPORTING MUSEUMS IN THE WORLD, DEDICATED TO TRACING THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF CRICKET.

The Collection was established in 1864 when Members were invited to donate items of interest to furnish the Pavilion. In 1953 HRH Duke of Edinburgh opened the Imperial Memorial Gallery, which enabled the Club to display works to the public for the first time.

Today the MCC Museum works towards Accreditation Standards and collaborates with a number of national museums and schools through its active loans, community and tours programmes. MCC Museum is part of Sporting Heritage, a nationwide network which cares for sporting collections, and, as a sports museum, collects history shortly after it is made through items associated with particular moments or people.

The MCC Museum continues to enhance its collection through donations, bequests, purchases and commissions and has a formal acquisitions policy in place. The generosity of players, administrators and Members continues to keep the museum relevant and up-to-date.

MCC Museum highlights include The Ashes Urn, a personal gift to England captain the Hon. Ivo Bligh in 1882/83 later donated to MCC by his widow in 1928, as well as the first Men’s and Women’s Cricket World Cup trophies, and even a sparrow that was killed by a cricket ball in a match at Lord’s in 1936.

Access to the Museum

Museum entry is via the Lord’s Tour or by presenting a valid match ticket on a match day.

Entry is free during International, The Hundred and Vitality Blast matches, and £5/3 during for all other matches including County Championship and MCC fixtures.

Lord's Tour

THE MCC LIBRARY CONTAINS THE WORLD’S LARGEST AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE COLLECTION OF BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS DEDICATED TO CRICKET.

Spanning over 20,000 titles from the latest books and magazines to rare editions and pamphlets from the game’s earliest days, the Library is an invaluable resource for authors, researchers and journalists. As well as a complete set of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, the collection also includes the only known complete set of Britcher’s Scores and many other items of a rare and precious nature. Many works on other bat and ball games are also featured in the collection, most notably on real tennis, a sport with which MCC has a long association.



The collection is currently growing at a rate of approximately 400 volumes per year with new items arriving from all over the world covering all aspects of the game and its history. Where possible, the MCC Library also seeks to enhance the collection by acquiring old and rare works second hand.

Donations of new books, particularly privately published works, are welcomed from authors and publishers.

Access to the Library

While the MCC Library operates as a private library for MCC Members on match days, the Library is open by appointment to researchers on non-match days throughout the year.

The MCC Library is open to MCC Members on weekdays and days when there is a match on the main Ground. During Test matches and One-Day Internationals, the Library is open from Ground opening time until close of play. Access to the Library is restricted on days prior to major matches. The MCC Library is open by appointment to non-members.

Library staff will be happy to assist researchers during their visit. Please contact us to make an appointment and advise us of your area of research. We are also happy to answer cricketing enquiries from the general public by email, letter or telephone.

You can contact us by accessing the form below.

Contact Us

The MCC Collection starts from 1826, the year when the Club’s first Pavilion was destroyed by fire and the original records of the Club were lost.

The first minute book, commencing from 1826, highlights this fact and goes on to document the transformation of the Club into a professional organisation responsible for administering the game. The MCC Collection consists of a variety of primary source material including scorebooks, minute books, members’ registers and correspondence, all of which are able to support key topics of interest to students, authors and researchers, not least Bodyline and the D’Oliveira affair.

Collectors and Collections

Since MCC first established a collection in the 1860s it has been fortunate to acquire collections from significant collectors and statisticians of the game; from the Ford scrapbooks of nineteenth century cricket ephemera donated to the Club in 1930 and currently on display in the Writing Room, to the working archive of the late Bill Frindall acquired in 2015 and the archive of the Women’s Cricket Association, acquired in 2018.

The Archive also comprises scrapbooks compiled by significant players from the game’s history; Lord Hawke, Pelham Warner and Gubby Allen to name but three.

About the Archive

The MCC Archive holds approximately 30 cubic metres of records relating to MCC, cricket and associated bodies. The archive includes records from the eighteenth century to the present day and can only be accessed at Lord’s.

The archive includes original volumes of the MCC minutes, original scorecards and scorebooks of MCC and England tours, MCC matches and matches at Lord’s, operational files relating to MCC departments, laws of lawn tennis, scrapbooks compiled by R A Fitzgerald, Pelham Warner and Gubby Allen, personal archives of F S Ashley-Cooper, Irving Rosenwater and Bill Frindall, and audio and visual material including the MCC Audio Archive – an interview project that commenced in 2003.

Details of the records catalogued can be found via the Club's online records, which can be viewed here. An overview of the records we hold can be found on the AIM25 website, available here.

Access to the Archive

Access to the archive material held at MCC can be viewed at the MCC Library (see above), which is open by appointment to researchers on non-match days throughout the year.

Researchers are advised to contact the Library prior to arranging a visit, as staff can provide information about the area of research you are interested in. Staff reserve the right to withhold access to records if the item requested is physically unfit for production.

Access to records under 30 years old is prohibited; access to records that date between 30 and 40 years require permission from the MCC Chief Executive & Secretary before access is granted. The MCC Archive policy with regards to copying and reproducing archive and library material can be found here.

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