Stamford Bridge is both a working football stadium and a place where Chelsea’s history can be followed beyond the ninety minutes of a match. In Fulham, southwest London, the ground has been home to Chelsea Football Club since 1905. Its current stands form a compact bowl close to the pitch, while the club museum and guided tours turn selected non-matchdays into a behind-the-scenes visit. The distinction is important: the stadium is not an open park, and access to the stands, rooms or pitch depends on a ticketed event or a booked tour.
The ground opened on 28 April 1877 as a sporting arena. For its first 27 years it was used almost exclusively by the London Athletic Club, long before the area became synonymous with football. In 1904, brothers Henry Augustus “Gus” Mears and J. T. Mears acquired the property and nearby land with the intention of creating a football venue. They commissioned Scottish stadium architect Archibald Leitch to design a large ground on a 12.5-acre site. The original plan imagined a capacity of 100,000, although the first east-side stand held about 5,000 and the rest of the ground was an open bowl with standing terraces.
