The first cricket pavilion was a small wooden one costing £365. It was officially opened by the Deputy Lord Mayor, Walter Littlejohn, during the match against United Services on 11 July 1925. However, the facility was inadequate in many ways and, without water or heating, it was unable to host representative cricket.
Plans for a new pavilion were unveiled after the 1937 season. Designed by the city’s architect, E.G. Catchpole, it was built of concrete and steel and had two storeys and a box for scorers on its flat roof. Costing just under £4,000, it was officially opened by Richard Palairet, President of Somerset County Cricket Club and representing the Marylebone Cricket Club, on 16 August 1938. A gold key (supplied by Messrs R.B. Wigfull & Son, jewellers of Windsor Lane) was used and in his speech the club’s chairman, George Smith, made special thanks to the architect and the building contractor, Dudley Coles.
The new pavilion was only in use for one full season before the Second World War meant the club’s activities had to cease in 1939. The pavilion was re-designated as a makeshift war-time school for the next eight years, and nearby Hyde Park School was one of the temporary tenants.
In 2002, a Historic Landscape Assessment considered the building to be an excellent example of inter-war modern design and potentially listable. In fact, the building was demolished a few years later after Plymouth Cricket Club moved to its new ground at Mount Wise.
