GUESS THE GROUND

 You must guess the name of the football ground depicted above. This is the present ground of a Premier League club, the cottage standing over the present centre- spot. Answer below.....
This is fairly obvious stuff, the stand lettering gives it away and here is the ground being illuminated for grass growth!

Yes, it is the original Craven Cottage, photographed around 1780, this original building sited by the Thames was burnt down in May 1888. It was a royal hunting lodge, lived in by William Craven, a nobleman, it was sited in Ann Boleyn's hunting grounds. An early resident was Edward Bulwer-Lytton, the author of "The Last Days of Pompeii".

In 1894 Fulham FC got hold of the land and took two years to develop the ground, opening up with a Middlesex Senior Cup tie against Minerva on the 10th October 1896, winning 4-0.

My Charterhouse side was lucky enough to play in the first Independent Schools' FA Cup Final there on May 16th 1993,  losing on penalties  to Forest School after drawing 2-2 aet.
The boys changed in the famous Craven Cottage dressing rooms, bottom right hand corner...not the original building of course.

The ground is also shown in the 1940s with the Craven Cottage changing rooms etc. More covered stands have been added since this photograph was taken in 1938, when Fulham played Millwall in front of nearly 49.500, a record crowd, possible because of the open terraces. It is still possible to stand on top of one of the river side terraces on Boat Race Day and watch the Oxbridge annual row. On some years with Fulham at home, the kick off depending on SKY!, the Varsity rowing race coincides, the start depending on the TIDE.