Grandstand And Turnstiles To Fulham Football Club

This is a football club grandstand with associated turnstiles, built in 1905 to the design of Archibald Leitch. The building is constructed of red brick with stone dressings, and features a steel trussed roof concealed beneath corrugated iron.

The building presents a long frontage to Stevenage Road, with a covered stand located behind. The street frontage is almost symmetrical, extending over 27 bays and rising three stories. Attached single-story turnstile blocks flank the left and right sides of the main façade, comprising 9 and 8 bays respectively. The central three bays feature shaped gables, as do bays 5 and 6 from either side. The ground floor is characterized by arched windows and paired exit doors set beneath segmental arches, with narrow, square-headed entrances at intervals. The first floor has square-headed mullioned windows arranged in triplets, separated by blind panels bearing strapwork cartouches. Segmental-headed windows on the third floor illuminate the stand located at the rear.

Behind the street façade is a two-tier stand with a pitched corrugated-iron roof supported by triangular steel trusses, the lower chords of which are curved. A lateral lattice girder carries an awning, cantilevered forward and supported on a series of lattice stanchions. The roof culminates in a central triangular pediment. The upper tier of the stand retains original wooden seating, while the lower tier has more modern seating. Tunnels provide access to former changing rooms situated beneath the structure.

Fulham Football Club was founded in 1879 and relocated to its current site in 1896. The club's name, “Craven Cottage,” references an 18th-century cottage orné that once occupied the land.

The grandstand is notable for its preservation and its significance as an early example of the work of Archibald Leitch (1866-1939), a leading football stadium designer of the early 20th century. The façade is unusual due to its ornate detailing, a deliberate departure from the typically austere and functional design of football grandstands.