Stadium History - 1990s Development

Stadium History - 1990s Development

1994/95

The rebuilding of Stamford Bridge from the ashes began with the redevelopment of the North Stand area. The old banked terrace, that in recent times had housed the away fans, was demolished and a new stand began to rise.  Renamed as the Matthew Harding Stand in memory of the Chelsea director killed in a helicopter accident whose loan and helped with it's building, it has now established itself as the main home for the most vocal and die hard Chelsea fans.

1997

Next up in the redevelopment queue was the Shed End.  The old Shed terrace was replaced with temporary seating for a couple of years before work began on the a Shed End seated stand.   At the same time a four star hotel, now called the Millennium Hotel, was also built at the back of the stand.

Like all the new stands as well as being modern, smart and comfortable they were also much closer to the pitch something many feel had hindered Chelsea's atmosphere for some time.

1998

The final piece of the new Stamford Bridge  story proved to have one more hurdle to overcome. The lower tier of the new West stand was built on schedule but then problems with the local council over planning permission meant a 2 year delay before the rest of the stand could be built.

Finally that last battle was won and work began on completing the biggest and best part of the stadium, the huge 13,500 seater West Stand. It opened for the first time on 19/08/2001 and marked, at last, the completion of Stamford Bridge  which had begun way back in 1973 with the East Stand.