Selhurst Park rose on a former brickfield bought for £2,750
Crystal Palace paid a railway company £2,750 in 1922 for an old brickfield in Croydon. Two years later Archibald Leitch's new stadium opened with just one unfinished stand, delayed by industrial action. It has since hosted England internationals, 1948 Olympic matches, a Real Madrid friendly and even the fictional AFC Richmond.
Built by Humphreys of Kensington for about £30,000, the ground had its official opening on 30 August 1924, performed by London's Lord Mayor, when 25,000 watched Palace lose 1–0 to The Wednesday. England met Wales there on St David's Day in 1926, and over the years it staged boxing, bicycle polo, cricket and concerts. When new corner-pylon floodlights were switched on, third-tier Palace pulled off a coup: Real Madrid played under them in the club's first-ever match in London.
Growth came with promotion. Reaching the top division for the first time in 1969, Palace built the Arthur Wait Stand, named after a chairman who was a builder by trade and often worked on site himself. In 1981 the club sold part of the Whitehorse Lane end to Sainsbury's for £2m to ease money troubles, halving the terrace; executive boxes were later perched on the supermarket's roof. The Holmesdale terrace gave way in 1994 to a two-tier stand for 8,500.
Tenants and owners shifted often. Charlton Athletic arrived in 1985 in England's first league ground-share, followed by Wimbledon from 1991 until their 2003 move to Milton Keynes. Chairman Ron Noades bought the stadium from the club in 1986, and it was separated from Palace until the CPFC 2010 consortium reunited them. Chairman Simon Jordan's 2006 claim to have bought the freehold for £12m proved untrue.
Attendances span extremes: a record 51,482 saw Palace beat Burnley in 1979, while Wimbledon against Everton in January 1993 drew just 3,039, the Premier League's lowest crowd. A planned three-tier Main Stand with a glass front inspired by the original Crystal Palace began construction in 2026 and should lift capacity to 34,000.
Source: Selhurst Park
