Craven Cottage

Craven Cottage is the name of a sports stadium in the Hammersmith and Fulham area that has been the home ground of the football team Fulham F.C. since 1896. Its capacity is reported to be 22,230, but 22,486 fans were present for the 1-0 defeat of Chelsea F.C. on March 19 2006. This may be because the quoted capacity relates to the number of people in stadium seating, ignoring those in Boxes.

History

Pre-Fulham

The original 'Cottage' was built in 1780, by William Craven, the sixth Baron Craven. At the time, the surrounding areas were woods which made up part of Anne Boleyn's hunting grounds.

It was lived in by Edward Bulwer-Lytton and other somewhat notable (and moneyed) persons until it was destroyed by fire in May 1888. Following that, the site was abandoned.

Under construction: 1894-1905

When representatives of Fulham first came across the land, in 1894, it was so overgrown that it took two years to be made suitable for football to be played on it. A deal had been done that meant this work was done by the owners of the ground, who then would receive a proportion of the gate receipts.

The first event at which there were any gate receipts was when Fulham played against Minerva in the Middlesex Senior Cup, on October 10 1886. The ground's first stand was built shortly after. Described as looking like an "orange box", it consisted of four wooden structures each holding some 250 seats, and later was affectionately nicknamed the "Rabbit hutch".

Before the ground could become too well established, the now defunct London County Council became concerned with the level of safety at the ground, and tried to get it closed. A court case followed in January 1905, as a result of which Archibald Leitch, a Scottish architect who had rose to prominence after his building of Ibrox a few years prior, was hired to work on the stadium. In a scheme costing 15,000 pounds, he had a new pavilion (the modern Cottage itself) and a stand built, in his characteristic red brick style.

The stand on Stevenage Road and Cottage are both celebrating their centenary in the 2005-2006 season and following the tragic death of Fulham FC's favourite son, former England captain Johnny Haynes, in a car accident in October 2005 the Stevenage Road Stand was renamed the Johnny Haynes Stand after the club sought the opinions of Fulham supporters.

Both the Johnny Haynes Stand and Cottage remain the finest examples of Archibald Leitch football architecture to remain in existence and this has been recognised with both being designated as Grade II listed buildings.

Establishing itself as a stadium

An England v Wales match was played at the ground in 1911, followed by a rugby league international between England and Australia.

One of the club's directors Henry Norris, and his friend William Hill, took over Arsenal in the early 1910s, the plan being to merge them with Fulham, to form a "London superclub" at Craven Cottage. This move was largely motivated by Fulham's failure thus far to gain promotion to the top division of English football.

The ground again suffered a scare in 1933, when there were plans to demolish it and start again from scratch with a new ground. These plans never materialised.

On October 8 1938, Craven Cottage held host to 49,335 fans during a game against Millwall.

Post war

It wasn't until Fulham first reached the top division, in 1949, that further improvements were made to the stadium. The first was that the next year they became the final side in the division to erect floodlights. The Hammersmith end had a roof put over it, and an electronic scoreboard was put up.

After Fulham were relegated, the development continued. The Riverside terracing, infamous for the fact that fans occupying it would turn their heads annually to watch The Boat Race pass, was replaced by what was officially named the 'Eric Miller stand', Eric Miller being a director of the club at the time. The stand, which costed 334,000 pounds and held 4,200 seats, was opened with a friendly game against Benfica in February 1972. Miller committed suicide five years later after a political and financial scandal that he was involved in boiled over. The stand is now better known as the Riverside Stand.

Between 1980 and 1984, Fulham Rugby League played their home games at the Cottage. They have since evolved into the London Crusaders, the London Broncos, and then into Harlequins Rugby League. Craven Cottage held the team's largest ever crowd at any ground was 15,013, at a game against Wakefield on February 15th, 1981.

Post-Hillsborough

When the Hillsborough tragedy occurred, Fulham were in the second bottom rung of the Football league, but following the Taylor report Fulham's ambitious chairman Jimmy Hill tabled plans for an all-seater stadium. These plans never came to fruition, partly due to local residents' pressure groups, and by the time Fulham reached the Premiership, they still had standing areas in the ground, something virtually unheard of at the time. They were given a year to do something about this, but by the time the last league game was played there, against Leicester City on April 27 2002, no building plans had been made. Two more Intertoto Cup games were played there later that year (against Egaleo FC of Greece and FC Haka of Finland), and the eventual solution was to decamp to Loftus Road, home of local rivals QPR.

After one and a half seasons there, no work had been done on the Cottage. Suddenly, a plan to partially redevelop the stadium sprung up, and the club were able to return to their home for the start of the 2004-05 season. The current stadium is not the 30,000 state of the art ground Fulham fans would like to see; in fact it is the Premiership's second smallest ground (after Fratton Park), but it at least lets Fulham play at their "spiritual" home. Much admired for its fine architecture, the stadium has recently hosted a few international games, all including Australia. This venue is suitable because most of Australia's top players are based in Europe, and West London has a significant community of expatriate Australians.

The Fulham Fulham Ladies and Reserve team occasionally play home matches at the Cottage. Other than this, they generally play at the club's training ground at Motspur Park or at Kingstonian and AFC Wimbledon's stadium, Kingsmeadow.

Future plans

Craven Cottage is where most Fulham fans would like to be, although the club might prefer a more lucrative situation - a larger ground enabling greater ticket revenue. Whether the club is looking for a new site for a stadium is unknown, but comments in summer 2004 from Fulham's CEO at the time, Jim Hone, suggest Fulham are back home for good.

The ground as it stands

Hammersmith End

The Hammersmith End is the northernmost stand in the ground, and, hence the name, the closest to Hammersmith. It is situated such that looking out from the stand you can see the Putney End and the Cottage opposite, the Riverside Stand (and the river itself) to the right and the Stevenage Road stand to the left. It often contains some of Fulham's more passionate fans.

Putney End

The Putney End is the southernmost stand in the ground, nearest to Putney. To its right is The Cottage, opposite is the Hammersmith End, with the Riverside and Stevenage Road stands to left and right respectively. This generally hosts visiting or 'neutral' supporters.

Riverside Stand

The Riverside Stand backs onto the river Thames, and contains the corporate hospitality seating alongside Fulham fans. Tickets in this area are often the easiest to buy, not surprisingly they are also some of the more expensive. It has the Hammersmith End to its left, the Putney End to its right and is opposite the Stevenage Road Stand.

Johnny Haynes Stand

Formerly the Stevenage Road Stand - named for the street it was on - The Johnny Haynes Stand is the oldest and irrefutably the most beautiful of the ground. Holding Fulham supporters, a lot of whom are season ticket holders, this is opposite the Riverside Stand, with the Putney End and the Cottage to its left, and the Hammersmith end to the right. This stand includes the ticket office and club shop, and a nostalgic but uncomfy blast from the past in that the majority of its seats are wooden, not plastic as is prevalent almost universally amongst stadia.

The stand's new name was announced shortly after the man's death in late 2005.

Details

Address

Craven Cottage

Stevenage Road

Fulham

Hammersmith

London

SW6 6HH

Phone Numbers

Telephone: 0870 442 1222

Fax: 020 7384 4715

Ticket Office: 0870 442 1234

Ticket Office Fax: 020 7384 4810

Records

Record Attendance: 49,335 v Millwall, 8 October, 1938 (Division Two)

Average Attendances

2002-2003: 16,707
2003-2004: 16,342
2004-2005: 19,838
2005-2006: 20,555

External links

Football venues in England | Fulham F.C. | Sports venues in London | FA Premier League venues

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