If we had to move...... Your preference and why?

[Myles_91]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say if we had to move my preference would be Earls Court, primarily because it is just down the road so people could still drink in their usual pubs and bars etc and walk down the Fulham Road as well as the fact transport links are excellent and it is only 2 stops away from Fulham Broadway.

Imperial Wharf has seemingly been ruled out by the club but I wouldn't mind it either. I know what some are saying about Battersea (I live south of the river) but for me it just wouldn't seem right moving to the other side of the Thames. This is our home, our identity and IMO moving south of the river undermines that.

White City is a no go IMO because it is only about 500 metres from QPR and imagine their reaction, the bitter sods have an unhealthy obsession and dislike for us as it is, God knows how they would react to us moving on their doorstep, I'm sure they'd go out on a limb to find all the best lawyers possible to stop us moving there, and I'm sure H&F council would also intervene as would the Met Police possibly. One of their owners is even wealthier than RA so we have to be careful about battling them over this. More importantly White City is West London not South West London and again that area isn't part of our heritage. My biggest fear is some kind of groundshare but I doubt that will happen because whilst we may struggle to fill 60,000 for certain games, QPR would probably struggle to fill even 20,000 in their cup finals i.e Us and Man Utd.

I support the CPO's stance and no decision should be taken IMO till a new site has been identified. I have my suspicions that Gourlay and Co will try to move us not only out of H&F, but out of South West London altogether and if that's the case I would probably go once for the experience but I couldn't see myself going more than that.

Thoughts?

[Nibs]

Has to be between Earls Court and Battersea but I've plumped for Battersea.

Fond memories of the area when I was a kid and visits to the funfair and park and being right by the Thames and Chelsea Bridge in SW London would not be a bad location.

[The old shedboy]

NINE ELMS ....LARGE SITE ON THE BANKS OF THE THAMES...NOT SURE BUT I THINK I READ IT WOULD HAVE 2 AVAILABLE TRAIN STATIONS....ONE FOR THE AWAY FANS ...ONE FOR THE REST.....PROVIDING ITS NOT A BOWL...PROVIDING ITS BUILT ACCOUSTICALLY WELL ....PROVIDING PUBS CLOSE TO GROUND....PROVIDING EASY VEHICLE ACCESS...YEA..ITS TIME...(obviously only if there is absolutely no way of sorting out the Bridge where it is)

[Hutch]

Has to be between Earls Court and Battersea but I've plumped for Battersea.

Fond memories of the area when I was a kid and visits to the funfair and park and being right by the Thames and Chelsea Bridge in SW London would not be a bad location.

That was pretty much what I was getting at here. Earl's Court? One or two tube statiions down the line (went to the motor show a couple of times) would be my second choice, but infinitely preferable to the likes of White City or Scrubs Lane.

[Andreas]

Battersea seems the best option, just over the river and a good location.

[Ben]

1/ Imperial Wharf

2/ Earls Court

3/ Putney

4/ Battersea

5/ White City

First 2 because they would still feel like they were in the "Chelsea" area. Putney would be good for me & still close by & in a nice area, to a lesser extent Battersea. White City is sh*t, only good thing about it is Stuarts (casual menswear shop) & Westfields.

[bjd]

Ideally Imperial Wharf, though it's too small. Coming round to Nine Elms idea as well.

Not sure why this needed it's own thread though!

[Zola]

If we had to move the ground I'd move it to Belfast.

Purely for my own interests, sod the rest of you :)

Edited October 6, 2011 by Zola

[Peckham Blue]

I've voted for Earls Court because it's in Kensington & Chelsea and close to SB. I do like the idea of Battersea though but only if the ground could utilise that eyesore of a power station and turn the edifice actually into the stadium, a sort of sporting Tate Modern. The publicity the club would get would be immense and would be acclaimed worldwide. It looks big enough, I honestly don't know as I've never been inside and if so it'll never be a boring new bowl stadium. If not I don't think the site is big enough. The new USA embassy will be across the road too.

[Englishman]

Earls Court or Imperial Wharf as they're reasonable close to where we are now. Wouldn't want to end up at White City or even further afield.

[TheWestwayWonder]

I've voted for Earls Court because it's in Kensington & Chelsea and close to SB. I do like the idea of Battersea though but only if the ground could utilise that eyesore of a power station and turn the edifice actually into the stadium, a sort of sporting Tate Modern. The publicity the club would get would be immense and would be acclaimed worldwide. It looks big enough, I honestly don't know as I've never been inside and if so it'll never be a boring new bowl stadium. If not I don't think the site is big enough. The new USA embassy will be across the road too.

I too have thought about this too, alot, and looked around the web for any hint of what a structure might look like.

The current suggestions for the station all seem to have the ideas of preserving the exterior shell of the building, as well as the stacks, and turning the surrounding unused land into a park/riverwalk type setting. In fact many want the central tubrine hall to be topped with glass and used as a large open mall type space. That convinces me that that the possibility of keeping the exterior structure of the station is real, and as you say about the edifice Peckham, the new statium could be clad with the old brick structure.

Here are some of the current plans. You get an idea for what preservationists have in mind for the structure: http://inhabitat.com/londons-battersea-power-station-to-get-major-eco-renovation/

Though I cant find a render of it anywhere on the web, HOK sports were originally rumored to have come up with a design integrating the power station in 2008. And the rumor said it would be a 75k seater and have a retractable roof. Im not sure how that would work if they were integrating the current design, but the building is 160m x 170m long, with side walls that reach 50m high. Seeing as that is probably too small, I would think the chimney to chimney 170m axis would become the width of the stadium, and the length extended beyond the current walls.

If this can be done, and the surrounding land converted (a la what City are doing to the area around Eastlands) then it would be a magnificent project for London and for Chelsea and would bring a whole bunch of great karma as well as saving an architectural icon. It would regenerate and add value to the surrounding land (which could then be used for detatched apartments, stores, whatever). Not to mention the psycological value. Can you imagine teams coming up to this on a European night?

Edited October 6, 2011 by TheWestwayWonder

[maddoo]

If we had to move the ground I'd move it to Belfast.

Purely for my own interests, sod the rest of you :)

Im with you Zola

[Spiller86]

I too have thought about this too, alot, and looked around the web for any hint of what a structure might look like.

The current suggestions for the station all seem to have the ideas of preserving the exterior shell of the building, as well as the stacks, and turning the surrounding unused land into a park/riverwalk type setting. In fact many want the central tubrine hall to be topped with glass and used as a large open mall type space. That convinces me that that the possibility of keeping the exterior structure of the station is real, and as you say about the edifice Peckham, the new statium could be clad with the old brick structure.

Here are some of the current plans. You get an idea for what preservationists have in mind for the structure: http://inhabitat.com...eco-renovation/

Though I cant find a render of it anywhere on the web, HOK sports were originally rumored to have come up with a design integrating the power station in 2008. And the rumor said it would be a 75k seater and have a retractable roof. Im not sure how that would work if they were integrating the current design, but the building is 160m x 170m long, with side walls that reach 50m high. Seeing as that is probably too small, I would think the chimney to chimney 170m axis would become the width of the stadium, and the length extended beyond the current walls.

If this can be done, and the surrounding land converted (a la what City are doing to the area around Eastlands) then it would be a magnificent project for London and for Chelsea and would bring a whole bunch of great karma as well as saving an architectural icon. It would regenerate and add value to the surrounding land (which could then be used for detatched apartments, stores, whatever). Not to mention the psycological value. Can you imagine teams coming up to this on a European night?

Don't get ahead of yourself WW. The Power station is a listed building if I'm not mistaken, so they certainly won't be letting us chop out the sides and build a stadium around it. Also apparently it's in rather poor condition structurally, which would mean you'd never be able to build around it anyway, or if you did to satisfy all the requirements you may as well spend the cash and redo the Bridge.

That said it would look pretty cool, perhaps a bit like Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Which is something truly original. As it is, I think we'd have to go for something like that anyway given that you'd have to make the stadium fit in somewhat and no detract from the power station.

I think heritage is what restricts at Imperial Wharf as well, because you can't build on the gasworks site, because the holders are heritage listed as well, which seems mind-boggling, I mean they haven't even been on the cover of a Pink Floyd album. That is a terrible shame because ideally I think that is the site.

Battersea may be excellent depending on what sort of requirements there are surrounding the power station being a listed building. Though it's a shame Earl's Court is out of the equation now with new development proposals there, because I think it was an excellent site as well with the rail station underneath and being so close to be able to utilise the same pubs as well.

Edited October 6, 2011 by Spiller86

[Davey Baby]

If this can be done, and the surrounding land converted (a la what City are doing to the area around Eastlands) then it would be a magnificent project for London and for Chelsea and would bring a whole bunch of great karma as well as saving an architectural icon. It would regenerate and add value to the surrounding land (which could then be used for detatched apartments, stores, whatever). Not to mention the psycological value. Can you imagine teams coming up to this on a European night?

I think we should hire Westway, and quick.

It would be magnificent, and would soften the blow of leaving the Bridge.

[shedpensioner]

I voted Earls Court, totally personal reasons its easy for me to get to with the transport links, lots of bars in the area or can still go down to FB have a few pints and hop on a train back in time for the match, I don't really know too much about Battersea so can't say, however I think it could be a bit of a nightmare transport wise for me coz I live in Essex now!

[belfast kern]

If we had to move the ground I'd move it to Belfast.

Purely for my own interests, sod the rest of you :)

plus one lol. Voted earls court.

[Paul70]

I vote for "other" which would be somewhere in south west london, i.e cheam,epsom,chessington,cobham and so on.

[Peckham Blue]

I vote for "other" which would be somewhere in south west london, i.e cheam,epsom,chessington,cobham and so on.

At least two of them start with Che....!.

[TheWestwayWonder]

Don't get ahead of yourself WW. The Power station is a listed building if I'm not mistaken, so they certainly won't be letting us chop out the sides and build a stadium around it. Also apparently it's in rather poor condition structurally, which would mean you'd never be able to build around it anyway, or if you did to satisfy all the requirements you may as well spend the cash and redo the Bridge.

That said it would look pretty cool, perhaps a bit like Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Which is something truly original. As it is, I think we'd have to go for something like that anyway given that you'd have to make the stadium fit in somewhat and no detract from the power station.

I think heritage is what restricts at Imperial Wharf as well, because you can't build on the gasworks site, because the holders are heritage listed as well, which seems mind-boggling, I mean they haven't even been on the cover of a Pink Floyd album. That is a terrible shame because ideally I think that is the site.

Battersea may be excellent depending on what sort of requirements there are surrounding the power station being a listed building. Though it's a shame Earl's Court is out of the equation now with new development proposals there, because I think it was an excellent site as well with the rail station underneath and being so close to be able to utilise the same pubs as well.

You are probably right and I was letting my imagination get ahead of me there. But I think the scenario you envision, with a stadium to match the motif of the station, would be very possible.

Re: the station itself, i have seen a slew of proposals to use the internal space and build a new revitalized structure with a glass housing. They did it by turning Bankside into the Tate MOdern (though apparrently a younger structure made that transition easier) so I hope and pray a similar transition if we moved to that site. Another musueum, a mixed use site with shopping and offices, a covention center. If the club owned the site not only could it reap alot of goodwill for spearheading the transition but it could take a hefty financial reward if it pays off.

I think we should hire Westway, and quick.

It would be magnificent, and would soften the blow of leaving the Bridge.

It may be pie-in-the-sky, but it certainly would. I love the site of the Bridge, but the building itself is nothing too remarkable from the exterior and already kind of dated as part of the previous decade. Building next to a true London landmark would make any new stadium that fits with that motif automatically timeless, imo.

We could light the stacks up blue when we are playing in Europe a la:

[mad_mac]

If we move to the power station, do we get a giant inflatable pig too?

[South Beds Blue]

Has to be Earls Court; we CANNOT go south of the river!

[MKBlue]

Can't see past Battersea, and not just because I'm a south Londoner, to build a new stadium at Earls Court would involve a major upheaval of the whole area for maybe 2 or 3 years, don't forget it's got to be demolished and cleared first. Battersea is a massive and open site where a stadium could be built from scratch in under 2 years without the attendant traffic, trainline and local resident problems that Earls Court has. If I remember correctly the nearest housing to the Battersea site would be the Patmore Estate on the Vauxhall side and Prince of Wales Drive and Battersea Park Road estates on the Park side, all of which are enough of a distance away to prevent any major local upheaval, try the same equation for Earls Court.

South Beds Blue, I'd rather stay at the Bridge but if we do relocate to SW11 comfort yourself with the thought that Battersea is probably the part of London where you'd find the most Chelsea supporters as a percentage of the population than anywhere else.

As an exiled South Londoner I'd love the idea of making a day of it and having a nostalgia trip. Get off the Northern Line anywhere from Stockwell to Clapham South and have a nice, booze fuelled, stroll to the new ground.

Edited October 13, 2011 by MKBlue

[Mike 93]

People worrying about the transport links, its about a 15 minute walk from victoria station across the bridge and a short bus ride from clapham junction. Ofcourse battersea park or queenstown road could be developed.

[Carshalton Blue]

Earls Court for me but just cant see it happening, so next choice is Battersea.

Here you go Bruce Buck, shove your Old Oak Common up your arse.

[geezer]

Nene Park Northamptonshire - 3 miles from my house - f**k em all