The generally quiet and well-to-do neighbourhood of West Brompton is bounded by West Kensington, Earl’s Court and Chelsea, and is made up of charming Victorian and Edwardian terraced roads to its north, and the livelier Fulham Road and Stamford Bridge stadium to its south. The stadium attracts 50,000 fans to the locale every home game, who pack out the numerous pubs and delis without fail. While the southern end of West Brompton can get congested with football traffic, the northern parts remain rather quaint and family friendly. Locals and visitors are spoilt by convenient amenities, with the highstreets of Fulham Road and North End Road providing numerous cafes, bars, restaurants and shops, as well as decent transport from West Brompton and Fulham Broadway stations. The London Oratory School sits right in the centre of the area, attracting a large population of affluent, middle class families who wish to fall within the catchment area for the well-regarded school.

With its name referring to the older town of Brompton to its east, West Brompton was, up until the late 18th century, made up of fields and market gardens. The Gunter family bought up the land in 1801 and built thousands of houses over the course of the 19th century, while at the same time the short-lived Kensington Canal project, which ultimately turned out to be a financial nightmare, was underway. Stamford Bridge opened in 1877 as the home of the London Athletics Club until 1904, when it was converted into a football stadium. Fulham Broadway station opened the following year to accommodate the travelling Chelsea fans. The other station fans would have used, Chelsea and Fulham, was closed in 1940 after it was damaged during the Blitz.

Nearby Brompton Cemetery, built in 1839, is the resting place for over 205,000 people. Some of the notable internments include the suffragette and socialist, Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928), and John Snow (1813-1858), the English physician who demonstrated that cholera was waterborne when he traced the source of an outbreak in Soho to a public water tap in 1854.

Another fun fact is that in order to curb violence at Chelsea matches in 1984, then chairman Ken Bates, inspired by his own cattle farm, erected an electric fence between the stands and the pitch! Luckily the electricity was never turned on due to rather obvious safety concerns.

The location of Stamford Bridge within the neighbourhood means that roads are incredibly congested or even closed on game days and the area can get rather rowdy. The tube station can also get packed, which is particularly inconvenient on weekdays when people are returning from work.

Chelsea FC for a few years now has had plans to redevelop Stamford Bridge, though the status of the project has been uncertain since its inception. Most recently, ownership of the site has changed hands from Russian-Israeli billionaire Roman Abramovich, who was the first to propose the stadium’s facelift, to Todd Boehly. who intends to rebuild Stamford Bridge one stand at a time. Unlike Abromovich’s over £2 billion grand redesign, which is almost double what the billionaire had proposed the budget would be, Chelsea will now upgrade and replace the stands in a set order. The project would see the hotel at the Shed End bulldozed to make way for the upgraded stadium. The owner has reportedly hired architect Janet Marie Smith, who led the renovation of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles among other sporting venues. It’s too soon to say what the redevelopment will look like, but plans will surely be announced soon given the fanbase’s enthusiasm for their team.