Fulham Football Club is delighted to announce that, following a planning hearing at London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham on Thursday 26 July 2012, the Club’s plans to redevelop the Riverside Stand at its Craven Cottage Stadium have been approved.
The plans include extensive refurbishment to the Riverside Stand of the Club’s historic Craven Cottage home to increase the ground’s capacity to 30,000, and enhance the matchday facilities for fans. A major benefit to the community will be the opening of the riverside walk from Putney to Hammersmith for the first time in recent history.
Alistair Mackintosh, CEO of Fulham Football Club said:
‘This is extremely exciting news and we are all delighted with this outcome. Craven Cottage is synonymous with Fulham F.C and it is vital that the Club is given every opportunity to develop the facilities available to ensure that it can continue to prosper and compete, and remain at its home for the long term. I am confident that an increased capacity and major improvements to the facilities can help us deliver the Chairman’s vision of long term growth and self sustainability for this football club.’
Cllr Nicholas Botterill, H&F Council Leader, said:
“Craven Cottage is the historic home of Fulham Football Club and this modest expansion, which will be carried out in a sensitive and sensible way, will allow the club to remain competitive in the top tier of English football while removing the existing, rather ugly, Riverside Stand. Our residents will also enjoy a series of community benefits such as an opened up river walk and improvements at Bishops Park.
“We are the only borough in Britain to be the home to three top-flight football clubs and we are keen to work with all of them to get the best deal for our residents.”
Since the above image was created it appears that a window has ben deleted and the Putney Riverside floodlight has been removed (naturally as the lighting will be contained in the roof of the stand).
Reconnected Riverside Walk
At present the riverside walk between Putney and Hammersmith stops and is diverted around Craven Cottage via Stevenage Park. Our proposal will create a new pedestrian path along the river Thames that will be open and accessible to the general public and extends the riverside walk.
The new riverside walk will be cantilevered over the river to maintain existing flood capacity.
Stadium Access and Egress
At the last consultation, a lot of people asked us to introduce direct access into and out of the ground from the riverside walk and Bishops Park. This will help reduce the crowd congestion on match days, and fits with our aim of providing a continuous river walk.
Riverside Navigation
Fender piles will be constructed to protect riverside walkway from river craft.
Improved stadium facilities
The expanded stand provides a wonderful opportunity for us to improve the experience for our fans. We can remove the pillars that currently restrict views, provide screens to show match-action replays, make the seating and viewing more comfortable and improve facilities for everyone.
The new stand will also provide a larger club shop, new restaurants and a wide range of bars and food outlets, plus substantially increase the number of public convenience facilities.
Key Design Objectives
Seating capacity expanded to 30,000 without seats loss during construction.
Remember these from 2002?
And do you also remember this?
BBC Sport website: Thursday, 17 January, 2002, 11:34 GMT
- Fulham stadium boost
Fulham have ambitious plans for Craven Cottage
Fulham have been given the go-ahead for the £70m redevelopment of their Craven Cottage ground.
The west London club, backed by millionaire Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed, was given the green light in the High Court to improve their stadium onthe banks of the River Thames.
“A new stadium is vital for our future” Jean Tigana
Fulham said they were "extremely pleased" by Mr Justice Collins' decision to dismiss the appeal by 11 local residents, asking for the Secretary of State to personally determine the club's planning application.
Fulham will now finalise plans to ground-share at QPR's Loftus Road next season while the capacity at their own stadium is raised from 20,787 to 30,000.
When both Hammersmith & Fulham Borough Council and the Goverment gave the go-ahead for the project, Fulham chairman Mohamed Al Fayed described it as "a momentous day".
But a small group of local residents did not share Al Fayed's enthusiasm.
The residents had been pushing for a public inquiry, which could have delayed the start of building by a year.
The so-called 'Fulham Alliance' said the issues surrounding the proposed improvements to the 105-year-old stadium were "too important" to be ruled on by the local council.
Lawyers for the residents said the new ground will have a "damaging and massively intrusive effect".
And they accused Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, former Secretary of State for Environment, Transport and the Regions, of acting "unreasonably and unlawfully".
A three-day judicial review examined the issues in November but Fulham have had to wait until now for the final decision.
Fulham still have to move out of Craven Cottage at the end of this season.
Following promotion to the First Division in 1999, Fulham were given three years to demolish their terraces and develop an all-seater stadium.
But the redevelopment of Craven Cottage is vital to Fulham's future.
That point is not lost on manager Jean Tigana, who has identified the link between what happens off the field and his chances of taking Fulham forward on it.
Tigana told the club's website: "Great facilities are part of my vision for Fulham, and a new stadium is vital for our future.
"I want my Fulham club to attract the best players and to play in Europe.
"A new stadium is important for both of these."
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