“It’s there to remind our lads who they’re playing for, and to remind the opposition who they’re playing against.” Bill Shankly about the ‘This is Anfield’ plaque.

One of the most famous stadiums in the world, Anfield has been home to Liverpool Football Club since 1892 and has been witness to some of the clubs greatest achievements.  The very mention of the name Anfield conjures up images of the legendary Kop swaying back and forth and the wall of noise that greets the players as they enter the pitch to the sound of "You'll never walk alone".  There really is no other stadium like it for atmosphere and passion.  Of course, a lot of that is down to the thousands of fans that fill the stadium every week, but as anyone who has ever been to Anfield to watch Liverpool will tell you, Anfield is not simply a collection of bricks and mortar, its a living entity with a character all of its own, just as important to the club as any player or manager that ply's their trade on its hallowed turf.

	Name	Anfield
	Home To	Liverpool Football Club
	Capacity	45,362
	Date Built	1884
	Dimensions	111 x 74 yards
	Main Feature	The Kop stand

The history of Anfield

Quite surprisingly the history of Liverpool's famous stadium begins with their fiercest rivals, Everton.  Formed in 1878 Everton originally played their games on the open grounds of Stanley Park, but in 1882 a national ruling forced all football games to be played in enclosed grounds.  This led to Everton's benefactor, John Houlding, renting a piece of land at Anfield Road, where a new ground could be constructed.  The new ground was completed in 1884 and the first game was played at Anfield on 28th September 1884.  Whilst located at Anfield Everton's fortunes improved, with crowds regularly reaching 7-8000 people.  To satisfy the bumper crowds new stands were erected and both the club and stadium thrived.  However, behind the scenes all was not well.  The Everton members were beginning to lose patience with John Houlding, who had increased the rate of interest on his loan to the club.  By 1892 the problems had reached breaking point, and after a meeting of its members Everton voted to oust John Houlding and leave Anfield.  Houlding was now left with an empty stadium, so he decided to create a new team, which was to become Liverpool Football Club.

Liverpool FC was officially formed and went on to play their first ever game at Anfield on 1st September 1892.  Liverpool FC quickly grew in stature and the club proceeded to develop Anfield.  The first stage of development was the creation of a significant Main Stand, which was completed in 1895.  The stand had a highly distinctive half-timbered gable that was to become a landmark in English Football until its demolition in the early 1970's.

Perhaps the most famous stand in all football, The Kop was not created until 1906.  Originally called the Oakfield Road Embankment and then the Walton Breck Bank, the stand was renamed the Spion Kop, after a hill in Natal that was the site of a famous battle in the second Boer War.  During the battle the British forces suffered heavy loses, with many coming from the Lancashire Regiment, which was filled with scousers from the Liverpool area.  Over the years the Kop was developed and increased and at its peak in the 60's and early 70's was reported to hold nearly 30,000 spectators, making it one of the largest single tier stands in the world.  Subsequent Health & Safety regulations reduced the capacity to 22,000 in 1975 and after the Hillsborough Tragedy in 1989 it was reduced further.  In 1994 the Kop was completely re-developed into an all seater stand, although it remained as a single tier.  The current capacity of the Kop is 12,499. 

You may have noticed when watching Liverpool games on TV or when you have visited the stadium, the giant flag pole that sits at the Kop end.  The flag pole was fashioned from the top mast of the SS Great Eastern, one the first ever iron ships.  The ship was broken up at the nearby Rock Ferry dock yard and as Liverpool FC were looking for a flag pole, they bought the top mast and had it converted.

The original main stand, with its distinctive half-timbered gable was demolished and replaced in 1973.  The stand remains largely unchanged to the present day and currently has a capacity of 12,277.

In 1992 the club opened the Centenary Stand, to co-inside with the clubs 100th birthday.  The new stand was built to replace the Kemlyn Road Stand, which was built in 1963.  The original stand only had a capacity of 6600 so in the 70's and early 80's the club began to buy up all the houses along that side of the stadium, with the plan to demolish the stand and the houses, to make room for a much larger stand.  By 1981 the club had purchased all but 1 house, owned by Joan and Nora Mason.  It would take nearly 10 years before the pair would agree to sell their house, finally allowing work to begin on the stadium in 1990.  The stand currently has a capacity of 11,762.

The final stand is the Anfield Road Stand, which was rebuilt in 1998, and currently has a capacity of 9.074.  The away fans are housed in the Anfield Road Stand.

As well as the stadium itself, Anfield is home to several famous monuments and features, most notably the Shankly and Paisley Gates and the Hillsborough Memorial.  Both the Shankly and Paisley gates were created to honour the achievements of former managers Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley, who are arguably Liverpool's two greatest managers.  The Hillsborough Memorial is located alongside the Shankly Gates and commemorates the 96 Liverpool fans who tragically lost their lives in the Hillsborough Disaster in 1989.  Both home and away fans continue to lay their scarves at the base of the Memorial, as a sign of respect to the 96 fans who died.

The future of Anfield

As most fans will now be aware, Liverpool Football Club have recently taken the decision to move away from Anfield and build a new stadium in Stanley Park, just a few hundred yards from where Anfield sits now.  Despites all its history and tradition, the hard reality is that for Liverpool FC to thrive in the future the club needs a larger stadium with greater capacity.  Anfield's location, in amongst tightly packed streets and housing estates, makes expansion impractical and prohibitively expensive.  The only solution therefore is to build a new home.  The new stadium, which will hopefully be called New Anfield (or words to that effect), is due for completion in 2011.  The designs for the new stadium are very impressive, but the greatest challenge for the architects is not to create a cutting edge design or incorporate luxury facilities, but to create a stadium that replicates the atmosphere and emotion of the current stadium, that Liverpool will love, and opposition teams will fear.  Not an easy task then...

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