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Played in Britain
Charting the heritage of a nation at play
We publish books about Britain's sporting heritage. If you like an old scoreboard, or a mildewed pavilion; if you would like to know where to find the world's oldest bowling green, or the best Art Deco grandstand in London; if you're fed up with homogenised, commercialised sport, and long to dive into a Victorian swimming pool with gorgeous ceramic tiling; if you think potting balls all afternoon in a dimly-lit billiard hall is definitely not time mis-spent; if you have ever wondered why tennis and suburbia go together so well, then Played in Britain is for you...
• Find out more about Played in Britain, our books and our authors
Hugely impressive and immensely important, Played in Britain (is) rapidly becoming the guardian of the nation's sporting heritage.
Played in Britain news feed: reporting on Britain's sporting heritage
Kentish Town Sports Centre re-opens after £25m restoration
July 26 2010
One of London's finest and most cherished historic swimming pools, the former St. Pancras Baths (known since 1993 as Kentish Town Sports Centre) re-opens on Monday, July 26 following an ambitious £25.3m restoration programme, easily the largest sum ever spent on the rebuilding of a British public swimming pool complex.
Swimming costume collection
July 26 2010
An extensive collection of over 500 swimming costumes donated by a Lincolnshire woman forms the centrepiece of Life's a Beach, a new exhibition opening at Southend Museum on August 7. The exhibits include replica costumes from the early 19th century up to 1900 and then an example from every year until the late 1980s.
For more information on Life's a Beach visit southendmuseums.co.uk.
British Sporting Heroes exhibition
July 26 2010
Worcester Cathedral is getting into the spirit of the Olympics with a new exhibition, British Sporting Heroes, which runs from August 7 - 30. The exhibition will feature up to 60 sports personalities, past and present, and celebrate nine major sports with sporting memorabilia loaned by museums and private collectors, demonstrations and talks.
For more information on British Sporting Heroes visit sportingheroes.org.uk.
£5m Investment Secures Future of Historic Birmingham Sports Complex
July 15 2010
Swimmers and conservation groups in Birmingham are celebrating the announcement that Birmingham's oldest swimming pool, the Grade II listed Woodcock Street Baths, built in 1902, is to be retained by its owners, the University of Aston, as part of a £5 million refurbishment of the sports centre. The announcement is all the more timely given that next month marks the 150th anniversary of the first pool to have been built on the site.
Swing Away - MCC Museum celebrates the 'special relationship'
June 10 2010
Despite what many Americans have been led to believe, baseball has strong roots in Britain, and shares many similarities with cricket (even moreso since the advent of 20-20). But only now, for the first time, has the MCC Museum at Lord's combined with its US counterpart at the Baseball Hall of Fame, and the CC Morris Cricket Library and Collection from Philadelphia, to create a fascinating exhibition at Lord's exploring the two sports' special relationship. Our favourite exhibit was this jersey from the Hull Aces in the 1960s.
For more details of the Swinging Away exhibition, visit www.lords.org.
Revised White Hart Lane plans welcomed by conservationists
May 20 2010
Football fans, English Heritage, local conservationists, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and Played in Britain have this week welcomed revised plans submitted by Tottenham Hotspur for the redevelopment of White Hart Lane, following heated criticisms that the original plans, submitted last October, entailed the demolition of important historic buildings and the loss of a key streetscape on Tottenham High Road. In particular the revised plans have recognised campaigners' demand to save the famous Red House at 748 High Road and adapt its upper levels as a club museum.
View the revised plans, and visit savetheredhouse.synthasite.com for more on the Save the Red House Campaign.
Read more UK sport heritage news articles »
Selected titles from Played in Britain
Engineering Archie
Archibald Leitch - football ground designer
By Simon Inglis
Great Lengths
The historic indoor swimming pools of Britain
By Dr Ian Gordon and Simon Inglis
Full of warm nostalgia, but in a serious meaty way, absorbing detail and fascinating social history… the usual Played in Britain trick (is) luring you into their world and making you care as much as they do about something to which you’d barely given a thought before. And… the quality of the photography is superb.
The Observer
For me, this series of books is invaluable. Previous lack of attention by sports historians to the built environment and the way this reflected or impacted on sport is now being redressed. Long may this excellent work continue.
Richard W Cox (University of Manchester) Sport in History
I love your books... keep this wonderful stuff coming.
Brenda Grace, Pontefract
Buy Played in Britain books from this site. Click 'buy now' links to add books to your basket. Signed copies are sent where possible. UK orders are post-free.
Played in Glasgow
Order your copy of Played in Glasgow, charting the heritage of a city at play, post-free to UK customers.
"Played in Glasgow is a superb addition to the lexicography of sport in Glasgow, and, in my opinion, the most intelligent, informative, well-researched and wonderfully readable of any that I have ever come across."
Mike Stanger, cricketscotland.
(Read the full review.)
Great Lengths
"Elegantly written and beautifully illustrated" according to the Financial Times. Order your copy of Great Lengths, the historic indoor swimming pools of Britain, post-free to UK customers.
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Sporting Plaques
In the run up to the 2012 Olympics, Played in Britain will be working with English Heritage to identify individuals and locations worthy of a sports-related blue plaque in London. View our gallery of existing sporting plaques and find out how to put forward your own nominations.