Around The Grounds: Upton Park, West Ham

22nd, March 2013

By Chris Wright

Time for a photographic trip around the grounds and, seeing as though West Ham have set the Boggle timer of fate ticking this morning by announcing that the 2015/16 season will be their last at Upton Park before moving to the Olympic Stadium, we’ve decided to have a look around The Hammers’ spiritual home.

As you’ll no doubt be aware, West Ham actually play at the Boleyn Ground, so named as the club originally rented the land from “Boleyn Castle”, i.e, Green Street House, the manor once supposedly owned by Anne Boleyn (hence the castle turrets on the club’s crest and either side of the main reception), though the ground is almost universally referred to as Upton Park due to the area of East London, specifically Newham, in which the stadium is situated.

As things stand, Upton Park has four stands: The Sir Trevor Brooking Stand, The Bobby Moore Stand, The East Stand and The Alpari Stand, with the old East Stand formerly containing the famous “Chicken Run”.

Alas, the Chicken Run is/was nothing to do with Kevin Nolan’s goal celebration, rather the standing-only wooden terrace enclosed with chicken wire that ran down the flank of the pitch, which was knocked down and rebuilt into a single tier, 5,000-capacity stand in 1968.