Plans include new leisure facilities, apartments, green spaces and riverside walk

Fulham Football Club has submitted a planning application to H&F Council for the redevelopment of its riverside stand, raising Craven Cottage's seating capacity and adding nine new apartments, new leisure and retail facilities and a new public section of the river walkway.

The application is as follows:

Demolition of the Riverside Stand and partial reconfiguration of the Putney Stand (western end) and Hammersmith Stand (western end), and removal of four floodlight masts; and the development of a new Riverside Stand providing two tiers of seating (creating an overall seating capacity of up to 29,600); a new extended section of riverside walkway; basement; leisure/retail provision for A1, A3, A4, A5, D2 use classes; 9 serviced apartments (Use Class C1); parking; a new river wall; a temporary construction river platform and construction compound; and associated landscaping (including boundary work), lighting (including new and replacement floodlighting) and ground works and all ancillary or incidental works and structures.

It can be seen in full, along with 201 supporting documents here.

The application follows a public consultation held in September, which invited the public to view plans for the redevelopment, which were then being finalised by architects Populous.

As well as better seating and facilities for fans, the club announced its new stand would include 'riverside pubs and restaurants, event facilities and green spaces', as well as improving the riverside walk.

Club chairman Shahid Khan used gardening analogies to explain his vision. "We are a club with ambition to grow, but to grow you must protect and never damage your roots," he said. He pledged that a new stand would be 'iconic and beautiful', blending history and modernity and added: "It won’t be long before we’ll be sharing some of the architectural elements and designs."

Now the formal application has been submitted, local residents can tell the council what they think about the club’s plans on the council's website.

Craven Cottage currently holds 25,700, with the current riverside stand housing the VIP seats and corporate hospitality, the camera gantry and dugouts.

The Stevenage Road stand, opposite the riverside stand was designed by Edwardian stadium specialist Archibald Leitch and listed in the 1980s to protect it from developers.

Also listed was the famous two-storey pavilion dating from 1905 at the corner of the ground built as an afterthought by Leitch when he realised he’d forgotten to include changing rooms in his original design.

December 20, 2017