Stamford Bridge has been Chelsea’s home since the club was founded in 1905 and it remains one of the most recognisable grounds in English football. Tucked off the Fulham Road in south-west London, the stadium holds 40,341 and sits at the heart of a 12.5-acre site that now takes in hotels, restaurants and a conference and events business, as well as the pitch itself. Whilst the vast majority of people will be heading to the ground in order to watch a football match, Chelsea have worked hard to diversify the various uses of the location over the years.
Where Stamford Bridge Actually Is
The ground stands on the Fulham Road, with a postcode of SW6 1HS. Despite the club’s name and the ‘Chelsea’ label, the stadium actually sits just inside the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, rather than in Chelsea itself. It is well served by public transport, with Fulham Broadway the nearest Underground station, though the surrounding streets are tightly packed and the roads immediately outside tend to close on match days. For the full breakdown of trains, tubes and the walk in, see the Getting to Stamford Bridge section.
A Short History of the Ground
Stamford Bridge is older than the club that plays there. It opened on the 28th of April 1877 as an athletics arena, home to the London Athletic Club, and stayed that way for nearly three decades. When Gus Mears bought the ground and could not persuade nearby Fulham to move in, he founded a new club, Chelsea, in 1905 to fill it. The early stadium was laid out by the noted stadium architect Archibald Leitch and was built on a huge scale, with terracing designed to hold crowds far larger than anything the modern all-seater ground can take.
Those origins explain the record books. The highest attendance ever recorded at the Bridge was 82,905, set when Chelsea met Arsenal on the 12th of October 1935. The ground has been rebuilt almost entirely since then, most heavily through the 1990s, when the Taylor Report into the Hillsborough Disaster of 1989, in which 97 Liverpool supporters died because of police failings, resulted in it becoming the compact, all-seater arena that supporters know today. The full story of how the numbers have moved is covered on the Capacity page.
Inside the Ground
Stamford Bridge is made up of four stands. Behind the two goals are the Matthew Harding Stand to the north and the Shed End to the south, both of which were rebuilt in the 1990s as steep, close-in stands that give the ground much of its atmosphere. Running down the two sides are the East Stand, which is the oldest surviving part of the modern stadium, and the larger West Stand, which was completed in the early 2000s.
The Matthew Harding Stand carries the name of the Chelsea Director who died in a helicopter crash in 1996. For where the away support sits and how the blocks are arranged, see the Seating Plan page.
Planning a Visit
A trip to the Bridge takes a little planning, particularly on a match day when the local roads are shut and the nearest tube stations fill quickly. For getting in, other pages on this site cover that, so see Getting Tickets, which explains membership and general sale, or Hospitality, which sets out the premium and match day packages. Away from the football, the Chelsea Stadium Tour takes visitors behind the scenes and there is even a hotel built into the ground itself, The Stamford Bridge Hotel.
The Future of the Bridge
Whether Chelsea stay and rebuild Stamford Bridge, expand it or move somewhere new entirely has been debated on and off for years and the picture keeps shifting. Rather than repeat it here, that whole saga is tracked as an ongoing timeline on the Chelsea New Stadium Developments page, which is updated as fresh decisions are announced.