It is also the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club (MCCC), the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the European Cricket Council (ECC), as well as the MCC Museum, where exhibits include the famously contested Ashes urn.

The current Lord’s Cricket Ground was opened in 1814. The first Lord's was established by businessman Thomas Lord, a member of the Islington-based White Conduit Cricket Club, in 1787. Lord leased some land at Dorset Fields in Marylebone; the ground became known as Lord's Ground and the White Conduit Club became the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which now owns the venue. The first match was held there on May 31, 1787, between Middlesex and Essex. The oldest permanent fixture at Lord's is the annual Eton v Harrow match, first held in 1805, which featured Lord Byron in the Harrow XI.

More than 100 Test matches have been played at Lord's, the first in 1884, when England defeated Australia by an innings and 5 runs. The 100th Lord's Test match was played in 2000 against the West Indies. Lord's hosts Test matches, one-day internationals, Middlesex county home matches, MCC matches and, since July 2004, Twenty20 matches.

The famous terracotta-coloured pavilion, built in 1890, is the oldest remaining building. The main grandstand was built in 1997, replacing the earlier building designed by Sir Herbert Baker, which opened in time for the 1926 Ashes Test. Baker presented MCC with Father Time, the weathervane which now stands aloft the new building. The Mound Stand was opened in 1987; its predecessor, constructed in 1898, once housed a bakery whose small underground railway took produce to various points of sale. There also used to be an underground station called Lord’s, which closed in 1939.

One of the most distinctive features of the Lord's ground is the significant slope of its pitch. The north-west side is approximately 8ft higher than the south-east side.

As well as its busy cricket timetable, Lord's is one of the planned venues for the 2012 London Olympics. Organisers are planning to hold archery competitions in front of the Pavilion.