Whilst heavily associated as the spiritual home of Liverpool FC, Arch Rivals Everton were, in fact, the original tenants of Anfield. Opened in 1884, the site was initially owned by John Orrell, a brewer and friend of John Houlding – the leaseholder of the ground. Everton had been banned from playing their home games at Stanley Park and were in desperate need for a new ground, so Orrell let the land to the club for a small fee. During The Toffees’ tenure at Anfield, a small stand was added which could accommodate up to 8,000 spectators. The club quickly found success. After entering the football league as founding members in 1888 they were soon league champions and were attracting up to 20,000 fans for big games. This success was short lived, however, and following the league win Houlding bought the ground outright from Orrell and increased the rent to £250 a year. At the time Everton were only paying £100 and refused to accept the new demands. With neither side able to come to an agreement Everton packed their bags and were once again in search of a new ground, after just 8 years at Anfield.
With Everton having left – moving a short distance away the other side of Stanley Park into their current home of Goodison Park – Goulding was left with what was, at the time, an empty but impressive stadium, home recently to the former league champions. It did require a lot of work in order to be restored to its former state after Everton members vandalised the ground, removing fittings such as the turnstiles. He decided to form his own team, Liverpool Association Football Club, in order for Anfield to have a use. Back then, the Sandon pub was the teams’ dressing rooms and it was decided that a new main stand, incorporating dressing rooms, would be built. Opened in 1895 it featured a distinctive red and white gable and was similar to Newcastle United's main stand at St James' Park. The new 3,500 capacity timber stand was considered one of the best in the country at the time and remained relatively untouched until its demolition in the 1970s.
The Anfield Road end was built in 1903 from timber and corrugated iron and 3 years later a huge open air embankment was developed at the other end of the ground adjacent to Walton Breck Road. Local journalist Ernest Edwards, who was the sports editor of local newspapers the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo, christened it the Spion Kop. It was named after a famous hill in South Africa where a local regiment had suffered heavy losses during the Boer War in 1900. More than 300 men had died, many of them from Liverpool, as the British army attempted to capture the strategic hilltop. Around the same period a stand was also built along Kemlyn Road.
Anfield remained largely unchanged for several seasons until the Kop was redesigned and extended to hold 30,000 fans, all standing, with a roof added also. Many stadiums in England have had stands named after the battle of Spion Kop – Bramall Lane and Hillsborough in Sheffield and Birmingham's St Andrews are examples, however Anfield's was the largest Kop in the country at the time, able to hold more supporters than some football grounds could in their entirety.
Floodlights were installed in 1957 and on October 30 of that year they were switched on for the first time – for a match against Everton – to commemorate the 75-year anniversary of the Liverpool County FA. The old Kemlyn Road stand was replaced in 1963 by a cantilevered stand, able to hold 6,700 spectators, at a cost of £350,000. Two years later alterations were made at the Anfield Road end, turning it into a large covered standing area. The biggest redevelopment came in 1973, when the old Main Stand was demolished and a new constructed in its place. At the same time, the pylon floodlights were pulled down and new lights installed along the top of the Kemlyn Road and Main Stands. The new stand was officially opened on March 10, 1973 by the Duke of Kent.
In the 1980s the paddock in front of the Main Stand was turned into a seating area and in 1982 seats were introduced at the Anfield Road end. The Shankly Gates were erected in 1982, a tribute to former manager Bill Shankly; whose widow, Nessie, unlocked them for the first time on August 26, 1982. Written across the Shankly Gates are the words You'll Never Walk Alone, from the Gerry & The Pacemakers' hit song that the Merseyside club’s fans adopted as the Club's anthem.
After the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 the Taylor Report recommended that all English football grounds be converted into all-seater stadia by May 1994. In 1992, a second tier was added to the Kemlyn Road stand, which now included executive boxes and function suites, as well as 11,000 seats. The stand was officially opened on September 1, 1992 by UEFA President Lennart Johansson and re-named the Centenary Stand. The Kop had to be rebuilt in 1994 after the recommendations of the Taylor Report and became an all seated single tier stand, significantly reducing its capacity to just over 12,000.
On December 4, 1997, a statue of Bill Shankly, created from bronze, was unveiled at the visitors' centre in front of the Kop. The Hillsborough memorial is situated alongside the Shankly Gates, and is always decorated with flowers and tributes to the 96 people who died at Hillsborough. At the centre of the memorial is an eternal flame, signifying that those who died will never be forgotten.
The most recent change to Anfield came in 1998 when the new two-tier Anfield Road end was opened. The stand has however encountered a number of problems since its redevelopment. At the beginning of the 1999/00 season a series of support poles and stanchions had to be brought in to give extra stability to the top tier. During Ronnie Moran's testimonial against Celtic many fans complained of movement of the top tier. At the same time as the stanchions were inserted, the executive seating area was expanded by two rows in the main stand, lowering the capacity for seating in the paddock
Plans surrounding the future of Anfield have been around for a number of years now, ranging from 55,000 to 61,000 seater stadiums and even the possibility of a ground share with The Reds’ arch-rivals Everton instigated by the local council, although neither team have favoured this proposal.
Liverpool were granted planning permission on July 30, 2004 to build a new stadium just 300 yards away from Anfield at Stanley Park and, on 8 September 2006, Liverpool City Council agreed to grant Liverpool a 999-year lease of the land on the proposed site. Following the takeover of the club on February 6, 2007, by George Gillett and Tom Hicks, the proposed stadium was redesigned to reduce the costs of construction. In November 2007, the redesigned layout was approved by the council and construction was due to start in early 2008. The new stadium, provisionally called Stanley Park Stadium, is being built by HKS, Inc. and is scheduled to open in August 2011 with a capacity of 71,000. Once the new stadium is built, Anfield will be demolished and become the centrepiece for the Anfield Plaza development, which will include a hotel, restaurants, and offices.
Key Information
Full Name: Anfield
Opened: 1884
Capacity: 45,370
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