GOODBYE E13, HELLO E20
Unlike the grander London football grounds, a masterplan or blueprint for the development of the Boleyn Ground never really existed. Rather, it was allowed to evolve as circumstances demanded, though one of its lasting characteristics, the proximity of the crowd to
the field of play, was present from the start. Knocked into shape in just seven weeks during
the summer of 1904, initially, the ground's principal feature was a long low grandstand on
the Green Street side, the first of four different West Stands to occupy that part of the
ground. A changing shed was set in one corner, an odd-shaped elevated pavilion was
erected for the benefit of club directors and the press, and the pitch was tightly enclosed
by a wooden fence.
Below: A Book of Football shot from 1905, taken from the Football Grounds of the Early 1900s by
Mike Floate
A Southern League derby against
Millwall on 2 September 1904
marked the first match at the Boleyn Ground, with an encouragingly large crowd of 10,000 in
attendance. As well as complimenting the ground, the capacity
of which was estimated at 20,000,
press reports remarked on the
exceptional closeness of the
stands to the pitch.
West Ham did not join the Football League until 1919, but gathering support from the
working class population of the East End, between 1904 and the outbreak of the Great
War, the club established its enduring identity as standard bearers for East London. Big
matches during this period could sometimes pull in crowds of 20,000 or more, with 27,000
cramming into Boleyn Castle in 1911 when West Ham defeated Manchester United in an
FA Cup tie. Having outgrown the first incarnation of the Boleyn Ground, in 1913 a bigger
West Stand was built, comprising an elevated seating deck and a large area of covered
standing. At the same time, terraces that would later become the North and South Banks
were raised at either end.
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Groundtastic - The Football Grounds Magazine