Millwall's Den was England's first all-seater built after Hillsborough
When Millwall left their old ground in 1993, they moved just a quarter of a mile. The New Den was the first all-seater stadium finished in England after the Taylor Report on the Hillsborough disaster, and the first new ground for a London professional club since 1937. It still has not staged Premier League football.
Millwall were founded in 1885 on the Isle of Dogs and have had six homes, including Glengall Road, the Lord Nelson Ground and North Greenwich, before spending 83 years at the Old Den off Cold Blow Lane. Chairman Reg Burr concluded in 1990 that converting that ground to all seats was not viable and announced a move to Senegal Fields in south Bermondsey, a site previously occupied by housing, a church and playgrounds. Plans for 25,000 to 30,000 seats were scaled back to just over 20,000.
The £16 million stadium was designed around crowd management, with short and direct escape routes, a response partly to crowd trouble at the old ground. Labour leader John Smith opened it on 4 August 1993 before a friendly that Sporting CP won 2 to 1. Capacity is 20,146, though segregation of visiting fans trims the usable figure to roughly 18,100. Stands honour the club's roots: the Dockers Stand recalls the Thames dockworkers who formed its early support, and another is named after Barry Kitchener, Millwall's longest-serving player.
Life at the Den has swung up and down. The first season brought a third-place finish in the second tier but defeat in the playoffs. The club dropped a division in 1996, missed out again in the 2002 playoffs, and in 2004 reached its first FA Cup final, losing 3 to 0 to Manchester United but earning a first taste of European football. Relegations in 2006 and 2015 were balanced by promotions in 2010 and 2017.
The ground's future was once uncertain. In 2016 Lewisham Council approved a compulsory purchase of land around it for a developer's housing scheme, a plan the club and many locals opposed. The council ended that land deal in October 2019, and in 2020 Millwall unveiled plans to add upper tiers and grow the Den to 34,000 seats. The stadium has also doubled as a TV football ground in the drama Dream Team.
Source: The Den
