Selhurst Park is a football stadium in south London, and is the current home ground of Crystal Palace F.C.

History

In 1922 the site, a former brickfield, was bought from the Brighton Railway Company for £2,570. The stadium (designed by Archibald Leitch) was constructed by a Mr Humphreys for around £30,000, and was officially opened by the Lord Mayor of London on 30 August 1924. There was then only one stand (the present Main Stand), but this was unfinished due to industrial action; Crystal Palace played Sheffield Wednesday and lost 1-0 in front of 25,000 fans.

Two years later, in 1926, England played Wales in an international at the stadium. England amateur matches and various other finals were also staged there, as were other sports including boxing, bicycle polo (in the late 1940s) and cricket (in the 1980s).

In 1953, the stadium's first floodlights were installed (some remain on the Main Stand roof) but were replaced nine years later by floodlights mounted on four pylons in each corner. Real Madrid marked the occasion by playing the first game under the new set of bulbs - a real footballing coup at the time.

The ground remained undeveloped until 1969 when Palace were promoted to Division One for the first time. The Arthur Wait Stand was built, and is named after the club's long-serving chairman, who was a builder by trade and was often seen working on the site himself. The Whitehorse Lane end had a new look with new terracing and brick-built refreshments and toilets along the top.

Due to the Safety of Grounds Act, the Holmesdale Road terrace (or the Kop as it was known) had to be split into three sections for safety reasons and this meant the poor facilities fell in the away part. So new facilities were built at the back of the other two parts. At that time, the Main Stand enclosure was replaced by seating.

In 1983, Palace sold the back of the Whitehorse Lane terrace and large carpark behind to supermarket retailer Sainsbury's for £2m, to help their financial problems and the size of the stand was halved.

Charlton Athletic moved in as temporary tenants in 1986 and became the first league clubs in Britain to agree such a ground-sharing scheme. A year later, the lower half of the Arthur Wait Stand was converted into all-seater. The Whitehorse Lane end then got two rows of executive boxes and later a roof and it was made all-seated.

Charlton moved back to The Valley via West Ham's Upton Park, and Wimbledon F.C. replaced them as tenants in 1991. The Holmesdale terrace was demolished in 1994 and replaced a year later with a two-tiered 8,500 capacity stand. The roof of the main stand was replaced, the previous one having started to leak.

When Mark Goldberg bought Crystal Palace, he bought just the club and Ron Noades still owns Selhurst Park today. Chairman Simon Jordan took out a 10-year lease on the ground and Noades receives rent from Palace. Wimbledon F.C. moved out (to Milton Keynes) in 2003, the bulk of their fans having decamped to AFC Wimbledon when the old club were given permission to move in 2002.

Records

The record attendance was achieved in 1979, when 51,801 people saw Palace beat Burnley 2-0 to clinch the Second Division Championship.

The ground holds the record for the old Division Four (now League Two) attendance for Palace v Millwall in 1961 when 37,774 turned out.

They hold the record for the club game watched by the most people - Sung Shi Hi and Fan Shihi's debut, most of the audience being Chinese.