UK - London - Fulham: Stamford Bridge - The Shed End

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Fulham F.C. - Fotopedia
Stamford Bridge, a football stadium in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, is home to Chelsea Football Club. It is nicknamed "The Bridge" by the club's supporters. The capacity is 42,091; it was the largest league ground in London before Arsenal's new Emirates Stadium opened in July 2006.

Stamford Bridge opened in 1877 as a home for the London Athletics Club and was used almost exclusively for that purpose until 1904, when the lease was acquired by brothers Gus and Joseph Mears, who wanted to stage high-profile professional football matches there.

Stamford Bridge was built close to Lillie Bridge, an older sports ground which had hosted the 1873 FA Cup Final and the first ever amateur boxing matches. It was initially offered to Fulham Football Club, but they turned it down. They considered selling the land to the Great Western Railway Company, but ultimately decided to found their own football club, Chelsea, to occupy the ground. Noted football ground architect Archibald Leitch, who had also designed Ibrox, Celtic Park and Hampden Park, was hired to construct the stadium.

As originally constructed, Stamford Bridge was an athletics track and the pitch was initially located in the middle of the running track. The stadium had a single stand for 5,000 spectators on the east side. The other sides were all open in a vast bowl and thousands of tons of material excavated from the building of the Piccadilly Line provided high terracing for standing spectators exposed to the elements on the west side.

The Shed End is located along the south side of the pitch. The stand has two tiers. The lower tier used to be home to the family centre, however for the 2005/2006 season and beyond the club has moved the away fans to the East corner of the stand (Gates 1-3 of the Upper Tier and around half of the Lower). The Shed also contains the centenary museum and a memorial wall where families of deceased fans are able to leave a permanent memorial of their loved ones indicating their eternal support for the club.

Wikipedia Article

Fulham Football Club (pronounced /ˈfʊləm/) is an English professional football club based in Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Founded in 1879, they celebrated their 125th anniversary in 2004, and are in the top tier of English football, the Premier League. Fulham are the oldest professional football team in London, usually considered to have been founded in 1879 (though the semi-professional Cray Wanderers are the oldest team in London still in existence).

The club spent much time in the old First Division through the 1960s but never gained any major honours. In 1975, as a Second Division team, they contested the FA Cup final for the only time in their history, losing 2–0 to West Ham United, the Fulham side that day containing former Hammers great Bobby Moore. Fulham qualified for the UEFA Cup in 2002 by winning the Intertoto Cup, beating Bologna 5–3 in the final over two legs. In the UEFA Cup, they won through two rounds before being defeated by Hertha Berlin. In the mid-1990s they had a brief spell in the former Fourth Division, but within less than a decade, they advanced into the top flight, their new millionaire chairman, Mohamed Al-Fayed, playing a crucial role. In 2009, Fulham had their highest-ever finish in the top-flight, coming 7th to qualify for Europe once again.

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