Black mass-timber cricket pavilion lands on Dulwich Common

By Priya Raman

Andy Matthews Studio has completed a black, mono-pitch cricket pavilion on Dulwich Common in south London that is 100 square metres smaller than the building it replaced. The client is Streatham & Marlborough Cricket Club. The pavilion sits alongside Dulwich Common, overlooking the club's main pitch.

Studio founder Andy Matthews told Dezeen the project answers a familiar problem for community sport: money. "Community clubs often end up with rudimentary, unimaginative buildings, or adapted shipping containers, due to limited budgets available," he said.

His counter-argument is direct. "Despite budget constraints, the project proposes the idea that clubs and community groups can achieve, and deserve, site-specific generous light-filled spaces rather than off-the-shelf generic design."

What does the building actually look like?

Traditional cricket pavilions are white with pitched roofs. This one inverts both conventions (a mono pitch is a single-slope roof). The exterior wears black, Japanese burnt larch cladding, a black corrugated sheet metal roof, and a single white clock face.

Matthews described the formal move: "We took that traditional cricket pavilion form – a pitched roof – and twisted it by splitting it in two and extending the roof form to create the canopies that define the entrances and public areas while providing solar shading and little gathering spots."

The colour reversal is deliberate. "The black blends into the broad expanses of sky and landscape, giving the impression that it's been there a long while, part of nature just like the old willow tree," he said.

How does it work on match days?

The main mono-pitch volume holds a multipurpose clubroom enclosed on two sides by full-height sliding glass doors. The glazing gives views of both the main pitch and the secondary pitch. A large canopy overhangs the doors to form a covered outdoor viewing area.

Two changing rooms open directly onto the pitch. Each contains a toilet, showers and a bench positioned so players can watch the game while getting ready.

A second, smaller mono-pitched volume houses the bar, kitchen and toilets.

What does this change for the club's finances?

The clubroom was designed to be rented out. Matthews framed it as a seven-day-a-week asset, not just a match-day hut.

"A community building has to work for the whole community, so we designed the pavilion as a robust, adaptable setting for pretty much all of life, seven days a week," he said. "The clubroom is generous and flexible, so it can hold the big occasions – christenings, birthdays, weddings, wakes – as comfortably as everyday activities like yoga classes, forest school, writing groups, and community meetings."

The business model is explicit. "That versatility also makes the building financially sustainable. The revenue it generates pays for its upkeep, so the club shouldn't need to fundraise again," said Matthews.

Materials and intent

The structure is built of mass timber (engineered wood panels replacing steel or concrete framing), chosen to speed up construction and reduce carbon impact. Matthews wants the building to reach beyond cricket's usual audience in the UK.

"This contemporary response is designed to appeal to a wider and more diverse audience than might normally be associated with cricket in the UK," he said. "The pavilion brings a calm but joyful response to the site rather than simply meeting a functional brief for minimum space requirements."

The design also meets England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) requirements for modern cricket facilities.

Photography is by Jim Stephenson. The main contractor was Brown Building, with structural engineering by Constant Structural Design, planning by CMA Planning and fire consultancy by Stantec.

The pavilion joins a small but visible wave of upgraded cricket architecture, from Reed Watts' clubhouse in London's Bushy Park to WilkinsonEyre's new stand at Lord's — evidence that even modest community briefs are getting serious design treatment.