The Stadiums of London!

if you haven't heard of london well it's comfortably the biggest city in western europe and the capital of both england and the uk and great britain i guess but more importantly it's the stadium capital of europe and arguably the stadium capital of the world with that being said here are the stadiums and arenas of london with a capacity of 4 000 or more brisbane road this ground is one of the more intriguing designs going around yes for the most part it looks like a traditional english football stadium with each of the four stands being separate from one another and built in contrasting styles even a bit of gable action on one of them very old school but well by now you will have noticed something unusual about the ground the corners are filled not with seats but buildings and they're not filled with offices or concessions like at some venues but they're actually apartment buildings that was done for financial reasons obviously but i kind of like that look [Music] the den its predecessor also known as the den was regarded as one of the most dangerous stadiums to visit in the country for away supporters to be clear that was due to millwall supporters rather than the structure itself although maybe there was a bit of both the new den is certainly a lot safer to visit although the amenities are decent the evenly sized double-tiered stands on each side leave it looking symmetrical and well there's just not a whole lot of character a lot better than being stabbed for wearing a west ham shirt though originally built for the 2012 olympics where it hosted several events copperbox arena now hosts multiple teams from multiple sports the main tenant being the london lions a basketball team unfortunately it doesn't appear to be made of copper but then again copper is expensive and it turns green after a while much like caviar for its modest size apparently the venue can get quite loud perhaps that's due to the steep seats and low ceiling haze lane besides the very modern all-cedar stand in the south that was built just a few years back it's a fairly humble old-fashioned football stadium with plenty of terracing and not much in the way of luxury not even the luxury of real grass you'd imagine that they have plans to eventually make the rest of the ground look like the south stand not sure though [Music] brentford community stadium this is anything but old-fashioned it's one of the latest additions to london's stadium collection and has a design like no other the funky shaped outer structure is a little polarizing but i think it looks great looks that way partially due to the room constraints that they had on the site combined with the architects caring little about tradition i mean that in a good way i love those seats which are a collage of the brentford and london irish colors not sure where the yellow came from queen's club center court the queen's club championship is the main lead-in tournament to wimbledon this venue is actually partially temporary because most of the capacity comes from stands that are erected prior to the tournament i still thought it was worth a mention [Music] stamford bridge is one of the oldest football stadiums in the city you can tell that it's very old because modern scientific methods are able to determine that this is in fact a stadium and not a bridge although technically it was an athletics venue for the first few decades of its existence so you could argue that it's not the same stadium anyway that particular type of brick they've used on the outside isn't for me but the interior is quite stunning particularly the triple tiered west stand one downside is that it's perhaps a little small for a big club but that's their problem the valley that's a much more appealing name than the den i believe it guessed that name because in the early years the ground was made from makeshift stands that were basically mounts of earth resembling a valley these days it has a much higher concrete ratio than most valleys but it's still a sight for sore eyes especially the covered end you know the covered end it's the one that's covered victoria road this ground is home to a club called dagenham and red bridge i would have thought that if you combine the might of both dagenham and red bridge that'd be an unstoppable force but no it's yet another non-league club this is a little more built up compared to the other non-league grounds we've seen a mix of covered seating covered terracing and open terracing this place has got it all emirates stadium arsenal was the first london-based premier league club to move from their long-time home to a modern ball style stadium mainly in order to generate more revenue as is usually the case i guess they were trendsetters because their rival tottenham immediately built their own new stadium 12 years later as usual for this type of stadium it sports an exterior made of plenty of steel and gloves and yeah it's a pretty decent venue the main downside for me is that they're such a big club but unlike basically every other club of their size they don't have a unique home benfica bought the same model just opted not to go for the added extras the o2 doesn't currently have a permanent sports tenant it's more of a music venue but it does consistently host various sporting events every year it's known for its distinctive dome structure which actually pre-dates the interior yeah when it first opened it wasn't even an arena on the inside just some sort of exhibition now it's london's premier indoor venue crystal palace national sports center it hasn't got to do with the football club but they're named for the same reason it's in the crystal palace area it's good to see that unlike a lot of european countries england keeps their football and their athletics separate although having said that i just remember that croydon fc moved in here a couple of years ago so they haven't really done that here but in the top tiers there's an area track to be seen the hive stadium it gets that unusual name because it's home to barnett who are nicknamed the bees and the homes that bees build for themselves whatever they're called are known for being a hive of activity hence the hive stadium although it's fairly simple and lacking in the hexagons i was expecting its clean modern design might be the most impressive non-league stadium there is barring maybe notts county lee valley velo park velodrome that was fun to say this is something a bit different not just the fact that it's a velodrome but it reminds me of the saddle dome in canada which as i've mentioned in the past looks more like a pringle than a saddle and guess what this place gets the nickname the pringle great minds think alike so i guess it's the same for stupid people as with most velodromes it looks freaking cool on the inside i still feel for track cyclists though they get paid much less than road cyclists that don't get to look at the scenery past them by and presumably they always have to wear elasticated pants or trousers as you might call them [Music] starting out on the side of what was a cabbage patch well over a hundred years ago twickenham has slowly transformed piece by piece over the years into the somewhat modern triple-tiered boll style stadium that it is today now it's not flashy for the most part but it's the biggest rugby specific stadium in the world and it's also regarded by many as the home of rugby union outside of the rugby school the actual home of rugby it's home to the world rugby museum as well the main criticism i have about this place is that if you happen to be wearing a rugby league shirt within the stadium you will get tased arrested and deported back to the north or australia twickenham stoop or little bear by twickenham as i like to call it it's the home of harlequins unsurprisingly a rugby union club despite sharing the name the true stadiums couldn't be any more different well no it could be a tortoise but they don't have any design language in common this is more in line with a typical club rugby stadium except for perhaps the eastern stand which appears to be inspired by a spoiler from one of those tuna cars and yeah i guess the seats are quite colorful as well so it's it's basically the fast and furious of stadiums [Music] the ssc arena or just wembley arena it has a fascinating history opening in the 1930s as an aquatics venue and being modernized in the mid-2000s as you can see though it has still kept some of its old-school charm the exterior is more or less how it was back in the day once again it's definitely more of a music venue but it does host the occasional sporting event this cricket ground is officially known as kennington oval but over the years its ego has grown so much that it simply goes by the oval it actually saves a lot of confusion because there's another cricket ground in barbados called kensington oval the oval is one of the oldest cricket stadiums in the world and while it still features some antiquated design elements particularly to the south and is overall one of english cricket's more modern looking venues especially the big sweeping grandstand on the northern side of the ground with its sleek roof it's odd how the square runs all the way to the boundary not really a square at this point tottenham hotspur stadium i've covered this modern marvel quite a lot so i'll talk about some of the lesser known features such as these video boards are actually bigger than any other in a western european stadium okay not bad uh it's the only stadium in the football league to be named after the club that it's home to better than a corporate sponsor i suppose uh the roof was actually designed for the sound of the crowd to reverberate as quickly as possible which helps the chance sound clear and crisp so there's no ambiguity over whether the f-bomb has been dropped uh we know about the retractable field itself stands that's big um what else [Music] craven cottage well look no further because this stadium has one oh actually i wonder if they sell cottage pie here anyway this is one of the most characterful grounds in the country there is actually a cottage like i said it's over a hundred years old there's also a bit of gable action once more but its most distinctive aspect is that they had to purchase a section of the river to hummus in order to carry out an expansion and i'd wager that it's the only stadium in the world that can say the same i'll keep mispronouncing the name of that river until you spell it right at least switch the a for an e wait no no never mind stonex stadium stonex is a financial company not to be confused with fred flinstone's failed private space exploration endeavour anyway if you yabba dabba do have to play rugby at a stadium with a track around the field there is one thing you can do to get the fans closer to the field and that's what they've done adding some stands right behind the post and on the western side some stands right in front of the permanent stands not ideal not pretty but it's what they've got salhurst park it's nearly 100 years old which is not that uncommon in english football but it remains one of the most antiquated stadiums in the premier league however it has its upsides most notably the charming old-fashioned aesthetic but i suppose if you're sat behind a pillow that matters very little renovations are inevitable though and i think it'll look pretty different in a decade's time hopefully it keeps some of the charm of the current stadium but i do like that the proposed design appears to evoke the crystal palace itself science teaches us that for every stone x stadium there's a sky x community stadium it simply consists of the main stand and standing room along the perimeter of the rest of the field but the main stand is rather impressive for a small club plenty of sky boxes which is fitting perhaps not high enough to be called that but who cares kian prince foundation stadium or loftus road as most people still like to call it not because they don't respect the cause it's just it's been called loftus road for over a century and over that time it's grown tremendously in capacity but the footprint has grown very little because it can't really not without destroying people's homes so it's a very compact venue a sardine team without the rounded edges and fish at least the spectators are all close to the field parkview road to be honest i'm struggling to find interesting things to say about these tiny non-league grounds so i'll make something up this stadium was actually the inspiration behind francis bacon's famous painting the persistence of memory it was a huge welling united fan and there was he was there when the stadium's clock melted due to an electrical malfunction so yeah that's where cufflinks were invented lord's cricket ground the oldest quicker stadium in the world is also probably the most famous cricket stadium in the world the two often go hand in hand jesus is quite famous you don't get much more of a contrast at any other stadium between the 130 year old pavilion and the space age media center at the other end but they somehow just work together i should also mention the infamous slope that runs across the ground it's odd that the showpiece ground of english cricket isn't even level but i love it gandergreen lane it's the home of a club that spent its history as a non-league club but was recently promoted to the fourth division so they had to upgrade the ground a little bit including replacing the fake turf pitch with natural grass as well as the addition of a new stand it still has rounded corners which is a little unusual it's very much like a sardine tint without the cramped conditions and fish london stadium london has hosted the olympics three times but this is the only stadium that remains it was initially a purpose-built track and field venue but after some modifications it's doing a decent impression of a football stadium however it's currently the only premier league stadium that isn't rectangular and thus cops a lot of flack but what are lacks in right angles it makes up for in interesting little tidbits such as they actually use surplus pipes that were meant for a gas pipeline to support the roof and just like brentford they've gone for those interesting triangular floodlight arrangements in its 10-year history it's hosted every major sport there is except for the ones it hasn't and it has the most generic name for a stadium in existence grosvenor vale this one just scrapes past the cutoff point of 4000 which is good because this place is known for one particular supporter known as the wheelstone raider if he was young and like 6'3 i'd imagine people would have called him a [ __ ] and moved on but because he's short and older he has become a bit of a minor celebrity anyway it's about as basic as a ground you can get with less than a thousand seats and just just stand wherever you want who cares center court you've got to love wimbledon but i'm surprised it hasn't suffered at the hands of cancel culture due to its white only policy yes players must only wear white clothing but then again it's the same with tess cricket anyway the ivy clad center court gets the name center court because it's a court in the center of the old england club in 2009 england's first retractable roof at a sports venue was added long overdue i think they weren't happy with the name slightly off-center court so wimbledon's number two chord is known as number one caught although there is an appreciable amount of aesthetic continuity did did i really just say that only people who wear turtlenecks would utter such a phrase although it looks somewhat similar to center court it's 75 years younger this one only got its retractable roof in 2019 then you've got the number two court which has a capacity of exactly four thousand quite a basic seating ball not much to say and yeah then you've got the number three chord and uh via voom sex even arcs etc [Music] speaking of wimbledon the new plough lane is home to afc wimbledon it's an interesting design for sure incorporating apartment buildings similar to brisbane road not quite the same also although it's not immediately apparent three of the stands the three smaller ones are actually temporary they're still solid concrete structures but they'll be demolished in the not too distant future to make way for larger stands speaking of wimbledon again king's meadow was their former home it's now home to chelsea's women's team and the under-23s but was actually built for yet another club known as kingstonian there's not much to say about the design itself mostly seated one small terrace pretty typical not exactly a meadow fit for a king but royalty is overrated they can't even sweat wembley stadium the uk's biggest stadium and actually the largest stadium in the world where all the seats are covered you don't really need a proper retractable roof for football in western europe but i guess if the rain was really bad you could tie a tarp to the giant arch and make the world's largest lean-to shelter the ends of the roof are however retractable but this is just to allow more sunlight to help the grass grow enough about the roof as you may already know it was built from scratch on the site of the old wembley stadium it's like the phoenix of stadiums hopefully it's another 40 years at the very least until the next iteration comes around because this one's fantastic and those were the stadiums and arenas of london did i miss any almost certainly but regardless if you enjoyed the video and you haven't done so already please consider subscribing thanks for watching have a good one [Music] you

Channel: The Wide World of Stadiums

Views: 140,842

Keywords: london, stadiums, grounds, football, cricket, arenas, stadium, venues

Id: p0u7168P510

Length: 20min 40sec (1240 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 18 2022