page_title: Motspur Park
section_title: Former BBC sports ground
hierarchical_section_title: Motspur Park / Former BBC sports ground
caption_attribution_description: English: Motspur Park: Former BBC Sports Ground Clubhouse The sports ground become disused and was sold in 2005 to a developer who intended to build a leisure and fitness centre on the site. However local opposition to the proposed scheme was strong, and the latest plans (in October 2007) are suggesting that the sports ground could be turned into a cemetery. This is because planning regulations require the land to remain as a green space and a cemetery is one of the very few options now open to the owners. This is the clubhouse photographed through the gates to the site off the Motspur Park road.
context_page_description: Motspur Park, also known locally as West Barnes, is a residential suburb in south-west London, in the New Malden district. It straddles the boroughs of Kingston upon Thames and Merton.
  Motspur Park owes its identity to the railway station of the same name, opened in 1925, which has six trains an hour to London Waterloo, and to the adjacent parade of small shops. Two prominent gas holders, which are used to store the consumer gas supply for south-west London, stand just south of the shopping parade and can be seen from a wide area.
  Two of London's minor natural watercourses flow through Motspur Park: Beverley Brook runs south to north through the centre and its tributary the Pyl Brook runs parallel to the east in shallow depressions in the land.
  The Motspur Park athletics stadium was built by the University of London in 1928 and achieved fame when the world mile record was set there in 1938. It was sold to Fulham Football Club as their training ground in 1999.
context_section_description: The BBC Club  had been introduced by John Reith, 1st Baron Reith General Manager & Director-General of the BBC in 1924 and expanded in 1929 with the development of a purpose built and extensive 21-acre sports ground at Motspur park. By June 1930, 400 of the 600 Head Office staff were club members.  
  The clubhouse was built in 1929 as a colonial style pavilion complete with clock tower. The grounds were laid out with the help of Bert Lock  an English cricketer and prominent groundsman, included four football pitches, six tennis courts, one hockey pitch, one rugby pitch, two cricket squares, and a rifle range. The BBC moved from its original home at Savoy Hill off the Strand to purpose built premises at Broadcasting House in Langham Place in 1932. The ground also hosted a Model Railway Club, a 5-inch live steam track used to run parallel to the railway line opposite to the location of the gas towers. It was later relocated behind tennis courts. The BBC would host annual summer events, and bonfire and fireworks party early November.
  In 1948, the Cambridge university athlete John Mark (athlete) was chosen to carry the Olympic Torch the final leg of its journey into Wembley Stadium and lit the flame in its specially designed bowl. He did his initial training for this event in strict secrecy at the BBC sports ground in Motspur Park.
  In later days it occasionally featured in BBC comedy series such as Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969-1974) and The Two Ronnies (1971-1987). The grounds and buildings were sold by the BBC In July 2000, to Hawkesbrook Leisure Group, who took a lease to run Motspur Park as a commercial venture, which included providing services to the BBC Club, but the  company  ran into financial difficulties. In July  2004 the club closed, with the loss of all facilities to Club members.   In 2005 it was purchased by Irishman Ben Dunne (entrepreneur) for £3 million. However a series of planning disputes left it derelict for many years, until a devastating Clubhouse fire in July 2016.
  The extensive grounds was obtained by Fulham F.C in 2018 as a satellite training ground.
caption: Motspur Park: Former BBC Sports Ground Clubhouse
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