FULHAM FC: CRAVEN COTTAGE - THE HISTORY

CRAVEN COTTAGE - THE HOME OF FULHAM FC SINCE 1896. THE HISTORY.

Craven Cottage has a history that dates back to 1780 when a cottage was built in the woods and the surrounding fields were used for various sports. The site, however, later fell into disuse and the original cottage burned down in 1888.

Fulham had already played at various grounds when their eye fell on the site close to the river Thames. After cleaning up the overgrown field, they played their first match at the ground in 1896. Craven Cottage at that time consisted of nothing more than a basic wooden stand.

This changed in 1906 when a first proper stand was built. The stand, currently called Johnny Haynes Stand, was designed by Archibald Leitch and had a characteristic red-brick facade. The stand was accompanied by a pavilion, which is the present-day Cottage.

Craven Cottage was further expanded with terraces in the next decades and reached its record attendance in 1938 when a total of 49,335 spectators attended a game against Millwall. One decade later, Craven Cottage hosted a few games during the 1948 Olympic Games.

In the following years, the stadium got further improved, concluding with the construction of the Riverside Stand in 1972. Fulham played most of the 1980s and 1990s in the lower leagues and therefore few further changes were made to Craven Cottage.

When Fulham started climbing up the league in the late 1990s and achieved promotion to the Premier League in 2001, the stadium was therefore not able to meet Premier League requirements. The club consequently moved to Loftus Road for a year (after a first year of dispensation), and expected to return to a brand-new stadium.

However, due to opposition to the reconstruction plans and spiralling costs, the plans had to be abandoned and instead was chosen to refurbish Craven Cottage. Works were completed in the summer of 2004.

Craven Cottage remained one of the smallest grounds of the Premier League, and Fulham therefore kept considering either moving to a new stadium (possibly to be shared with another West-London club), or further redeveloping Craven Cottage.

The club in the end decided to stay at Craven Cottage and developed plans to build a new Riverside Stand, raising capacity to 30,000 seats. While they had their plans approved in 2013, works on the stand are yet to start.

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