Stamford Bridge Stadium History

Introduction


Chelsea's home stadium is called Stamford Bridge and has a history as varied and unique as the team itself.

Stamford Bridge officially opened on 28 April 1877. For the first 28 years of its existence it was used almost exclusively by the London Athletic Club as an arena for athletics meetings and not for football at all.

In 1904 the ownership of the ground changed hands when Mr H A (Gus) Mears and his brother, Mr J T Mears, obtained the deeds, having previously acquired additional land (formerly a large market garden) with the aim of establishing a football team there on the now 12.5 acre site.

Stamford Bridge was designed by Archibald Leitch and initially included a 120 yard long stand on the East side which could hold 5000 spectators.

The other sides were all open in a vast bowl with thousands of tons of material excavated from the building of the underground railway provided high terracing on the West side.

The capacity was originally planned to be 100,000 and was the second largest in country behind Crystal Palace - the FA Cup final venue.

Initially the stadium was offered to Fulham FC to play there, they turned down the chance and so instead a new side, Chelsea Football Club, was born in 1905 and moved into the new Stamford Bridge stadium.

Why is it called Stamford Bridge?

The name and place of Stamford Bridge is one with great significance in English history having been the site in Yorkshire of one of the most famous battles of King Harold's reign in 1066 against the Vikings.

However it is believed that this is not connected to the naming of Chelsea's football stadium which came about less because of historical significance and more to do with local landmarks and a fair degree of chance.

The 18th century maps show the Fulham Road and Kings Road area including the current day site of the stadium. It shows a stream called 'Stanford Creek' which runs along the route of the present day railway line behind the East Stand and flows down into the Thames.

Where the stream crosses the Fulham Road it is marked 'Little Chelsea Bridge' which was originally called Sanford Bridge (from sand ford). While a bridge over the stream on the Kings Road was called Stanbridge (from stone bridge). It seems that these two bridge names and that of the stream, 'Stanford Creek', together evolved into the name Stanford Bridge, which again later evolved into Stamford Bridge as the adopted name of the stadium.

PRE-WAR DEVELOPMENT

 

1930

From it's creation the stadium remained largely unchanged until 1930 when the "Shed End" terraced area was erected. A vast bank of terracing behind the southern goal it was to become the mecca for Chelsea' most die hard supporters and would forever be associated with Stamford Bridge.

As the stadium developed the Shed End really came into its own in the 60's, 70's and 80's and was the focal point of the hardcore Chelsea fans and the originators of most of the singing and atmosphere. Adorned with a rather unique 'roofed' area (which barely covered 1/5th of the whole terrace) there is debate over how and when it developed the name 'Shed' as it wasn't given a name when it was built.

The Shed was demolished in 1994 following new laws compelling grounds to be all seater and was replaced with the new Shed End seated stand in 1997. The final match with the old Shed was Sheffield United at home on 7th May 1994 although sadly no one knew at the time it would be the last game so the Shed was never given the send off it deserved.

1939

In 1939 the North Stand was built. A curious stand in the north east corner it was an extension to the East stand and stuck out for being a completely different design to the rest of the stadium but it did provide extra seating. It survived until 1975 when it was demolished and the north end was then open terracing until 1993 when it too was demolished at the start of the modern redevelopment of the entire stadium. 

1960`s and 70`s DEVELOPMENT

 

1964/65

In 1964/65, during one of Chelsea's best periods on the pitch, saw the vast western terrace replaced by a seated stand. The stand was 3/4 seating and 1/4 concrete slabs affectionately known as the 'Benches'. The West stand existed for 25 years until it was the last of the old stadium to be demolished in 1998 and despite by that stage being a rickety, crumbling stand it too was a sad day for many when the old West Stand with it's wooden seats went, and like the Shed, is a source of nostalgia.

Yet its replacement is quite simply one of the finest stadium stands in the country costing an estimated £30 million to build, and housing 13,500 people in luxury surroundings with superb views.

1973/74

In 1973 the East Stand was built, a marvel of engineering of the time and still one of the most striking stands in the country there's little doubt it was ahead of its time. The only part of the current stadium that survived the mass rebuilding of the 1990's it has though undergone extensive refurbishment and refitting.

The East Stand, for all its magnificence also has a controversial past. When Chelsea were at their peak in the late 60's and early 70's the then owners decided the all star team on the pitch deserved to be playing in the best stadium in the country. Their plan was hugely ambitious to completely redevelop Stamford Bridge into a 50,000 all seater circular stadium. It proved too ambitious and many feel brought the club to it's knees, forced the selling of the star players, relegation and nearly forced the club into complete ruin by the start of the 1980's.

It took another 20 years to rebuild not only the stadium and team but the entire club, yet for all that the East Stand itself remains as impressive today as it always did.

SAVE THE BRIDGE!

With the club virtually bankrupt in the late 70's the then owners made the drastic decision to sell the Stamford Bridge site to property developers to pay off some of the debts. It was a decision that very nearly saw Chelsea lose it's ground, be forced to share with Fulham or QPR and the famous stadium converted into houses or a supermarket.

With Chelsea no longer owning their own ground they were unable to do any more rebuilding and lagged behind other clubs in that respect. A bitter, expensive and close run 10 year fight by chairman Ken Bates to fight the property developers and win back ownership of Stamford Bridge was finally successful in 1992. With an ironic twist is was the property developers who were forced into bankruptcy and Chelsea FC got it's ground back.

It was a close run thing at times but Stamford Bridge survived its biggest ever challenge and in 1994 the process of the most extensive redevelopment of any stadium in the country began. Turning a dilapidated and crumbling ground with views miles from the pitch into one of the most impressive in the country.

1990s DEVELOPMENT

 

1994/95

The rebuilding of Stamford Bridge from the ashes began with the redevelopment of the North Stand area. The old banked terrace that in recent times had housed the away fans was demolished and the new stand began to rise. Renamed as the Matthew Harding Stand in memory of the Chelsea director killed in a helicopter accident it has now established itself as the home of the most vocal and die hard Chelsea fans.

1997

Next up in the redevelopment queue was the new Shed End Stand. The old Shed terrace was replaced with temporary seating for a couple of years before work began on the new Shed End. At the same time the Chelsea Village Hotel, which would be the centre piece of the massive Chelsea Village development, was built at the same time.

Like all the new stands as well as being modern, smart and comfortable they were also much closer to the pitch something many feel had hindered Chelsea's atmosphere for some time.

1998

The final piece of the new Stamford Bridge story proved to have one more hurdle to overcome. The lower tier of the new West stand was built on schedule but then problems with the local council over planning permission meant a 2 year delay before the rest of the stand could be built.

Finally that last battle was won and work began on completing the biggest and best part of the stadium, the huge 13,500 seater West Stand. It opened for the first time on 19/08/2001 and marked, at last, the completion of Stamford Bridge which had begun way back in 1973 with the East Stand. 

THE PRESENT DAY

The current capacity stands at 41,841 and the ground has gone from being a huge oval shape to 4 sides close to the pitch. There is almost no part of the current stadium that hasn't markedly changed in the past 15 years with only the huge old Shed wall remaining of the original stadium.

As well as all the work on the stadium itself the whole 12.5 acre site has seen the building of 2 four star hotels, 3 restaurants, conference and banqueting facilities, underground car park, health club and business centre. It has come a long long way since the original athletics venue was first built in 1876!

There is a long standing desire to increase the capacity of the stadium from it's present total but as yet no solution has been found that will meet the various planning and safety requirements to make this a reality.