UK - London - Fulham: Stamford Bridge

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.