About the Shed Wall
The wall you are looking at is the only significant feature of the original Stamford Bridge stadium still standing today.
The stadium was built on the site of an athletics venue which dated back to 1877, and was to become the home of the new Chelsea Football Club, founded in 1905.
The curvature of the original Shed Wall points back to the vast, open bowl that the stadium was for much of the club’s first century in existence. The terraces were constructed on top of material excavated from the building of the London Underground Piccadilly Line.
It wasn’t until the 1960s that the Shed End gained its informal name. A roof had been fitted some 30 years earlier, covering a small section of the southern end of the stadium which housed bookmakers at the greyhound racing events which took place on the track enclosing the pitch. A letter in the matchday programme from a supporter called for the Fulham Road end to be known as ‘The Shed’, and for more vocal fans to congregate there, rivalling the home support at other grounds.
The name stuck, and for three more decades the Shed End would provide passionate support for those playing in blue before it. The terrace eventually closed on the final day of the 1993/94 season, with the all-seater stand we know today opening in 1997, joined by the hotels, apartments, restaurants and underground car park.
