Chelsea exists because Fulham turned down Stamford Bridge
In 1904 the Mears brothers acquired an athletics ground in west London and offered it to Fulham, who said no. Rather than sell to a railway company, they invented a football club to fill it. That club was Chelsea, and it has played at Stamford Bridge ever since, through near-ruin and an electric fence.
The name probably comes from Samfordesbrigge, meaning the bridge at the sandy ford, a crossing over a Thames tributary later called Counter's Creek. The ground opened in 1877 for the London Athletic Club and even hosted a shinty world championship in 1898. When Fulham declined the tenancy, Gus and Joseph Mears founded Chelsea in 1905 as a rival and hired Archibald Leitch, designer of Ibrox and Hampden Park, to build a stadium meant for around 100,000 people.
Early crowds stood far from the action, because a running track circled the pitch and one stand held just 5,000. Spoil dug out for the Piccadilly line was piled up to form high terracing. The record official attendance, 82,905, came for a league match against Arsenal in October 1935, and a 3–3 draw with Dynamo Moscow in 1945 reportedly drew more than 100,000, some perched on stand roofs.
Then things went badly wrong. A redevelopment in the early 1970s produced only a new East Stand, overrun by material shortages and a builders' strike and set about 20 metres off the pitch. Debts mounted, and the freehold was split from the club. Ken Bates bought Chelsea for £1 in 1982 without the ground, and much of the land went to developers Marler Estates, leading to a long legal battle that ended only when a property crash in the early 1990s bankrupted them. In the mid-1980s Bates even put up an electric fence to deter hooligans, but it was never switched on.
After the Taylor Report demanded all-seater stadiums, the council approved plans in 1990 and the 1990s rebuild finally removed the track. The roofed stands now hug the pitch and trap the noise. To keep developers away for good, the pitch, turnstiles and naming rights now belong to Chelsea Pitch Owners. Capacity stands at 40,044.
Source: Stamford Bridge (stadium)
