The Sydney Cricket Ground

The SCG took its name in 1894, but the shape these photographs record was already set: the Members' Stand of 1886 in the north-west corner, the Ladies' Pavilion whose foundation stone Viscountess Hampden laid in 1896, and opposite them the two grassed mounds — the Hill and the Paddington Hill — where everyone else stood.

Four days in December 1936 dominate. The Second Test of that summer's Ashes was played here from the 18th to the 22nd, and it went about as badly as a Test can: Australia, caught on a sticky wicket, were bowled out for 80, and Don Bradman — newly made captain and selector, and under open speculation about both — was caught at short leg first ball for nought. Australia lost by an innings and went two-nil down. The photograph of Bradman walking out to bat, and the one of two MCC batsmen doing the same, are from that match. What nobody in the stands could know is that Australia then won the next three Tests and took the series, still the only side ever to come back from 0–2 in an Ashes.

Otherwise the ground is whatever Sydney needed a large enclosed field to be. Tennis is played on it in 1934. Schoolchildren form human flags across the turf. And the crowd is photographed as often as the game: women in hats packed along the rails, spectators banked up in front of timber grandstands long since gone.