Arden St Oval
Arden Street Oval from the air in 2007 (during redevelopment)
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| Former names | Hotham Cricket Ground North Melbourne Recreation Reserve Aegis Park |
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| Location | Arden Street, North Melbourne, Victoria |
| Coordinates | 37°47′57″S 144°56′28″E / 37.79917°S 144.94111°ECoordinates: 37°47′57″S 144°56′28″E / 37.79917°S 144.94111°E |
| Owner | Melbourne City Council |
| Operator | North Melbourne Football Club |
| Capacity | 5,000 |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1850s |
| Opened | 1850s |
| Construction cost | A$16 m (Redevelopment) |
| Architect | Williams Ross Architects |
| Tenants | |
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North Melbourne Football Club (1882-1964, 1966-present) Melbourne Greyhound Racing Association (1957-1962) Fencing Victoria (2010- ) |
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North Melbourne Football Club (1882-1964, 1966-present)
North Melbourne Cricket Club (1868-2008)
Arden Street Oval (also known as North Melbourne Cricket Ground) is a sports oval in North Melbourne, Victoria. It is currently the training base of the North Melbourne Football Club, an Australian rules football club, and up to the end of the 1985 season it was used as the team's home ground for Victorian Football League (VFL) matches.
The North Melbourne Recreation Reserve is an inner-suburban sporting facility which is distinguished by its long standing association with the North Melbourne Football Club; it has served as the home of North Melbourne for more than 125 years.
Not much is known about the exact date that Arden St Oval was officially opened, but local history purports it as being as old as the suburb itself. The Hotham Cricket Club served as the ground's only tenants until 1882 when they amalgamated with the Hotham Football Club - as they were then known - to effect improvements to the ground. Before then, the Hotham Football Club had been playing home matches at Royal Park, near the present site of the Melbourne Zoo. The first game of Australian football ever played at the ground took place on 29 April 1882, when Hotham defeated Royal Park. Three years later, the ground became permanently reserved to the Crown. The football and cricket clubs changed their names to North Melbourne on 23 March 1888, after the Town of Hotham reverted to the name of North Melbourne in August 1887.
The sharing agreement between the cricket and footy clubs was not all rosy, and by the late 1890s the two entities ended up in court over a dispute about the use of the cricket pavilion by a visiting football team. The court ruled in favour of the cricket club citing that since it was Crown land, it was illegal to fence off any part of it for the benefit of either party.
The playing surface, previously notorious for becoming a gluepot in inclement weather, was upgraded during the winter of 1897, so no football was played there during that season. 1906 saw the construction of the ground's first grand stand. By mid-1909, the control of the Recreation Reserve had shifted to the Parks and Gardens Committee of the Melbourne City Council, meaning that the State Minister for Lands had final say over the use of the reserve. In 1921, the Essendon Football Club attempted to move to the ground after its home ground, the East Melbourne Cricket Ground, was closed, and the North Melbourne Football Club disbanded as it sought to amalgamate with Essendon; but the State Minister for Lands vetoed Essendon's move. This prompted Essendon to move to the Essendon Recreation Reserve, and the re-formed North Melbourne returned the following season to Arden Street.
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