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Liverpool FC Mailing List - Anfield

Anfield has not always been home to Liverpool, in fact Everton Football Club played here from 1884 until 1892, when they moved across Stanley Park to Goodison Road. There they built up the first major football ground in England. After Everton's departure, their old landlord formed his own professional club to reside at Anfield, and Liverpool FC was born.

The first major development at Anfield was the building of the Main Stand in 1895, which provided seating for 3,000 and a paddock in front. The stand's roof was the same design as Newcastle United's West Stand at St James' Park, a barrel roof with a round gable in the middle. The gable featured a delicate iron finial at its top and 'Liverpool Football Club' spelled out on the front. In 1973 the Main Stand was expanded by over 5,000 seats. Sadly, however, this construction required the removal of the old barrel roof, its replacement being a plain flat roof supported by two columns and with floodlight gantries on top. Later on the paddock was seated, bringing the Main Stand to its present capacity of around 12,000 seats. Any major ground redevelopments in the future will probably involve completely rebuilding the Main Stand, since some of its facilities remain from its original construction one hundred years ago.

Opposite the Main Stand is the Centenary Stand, named so because it was opened on 1 September 1992, exactly one hundred years after the club's founding. A very tall stand with a huge goalpost roof, the Centenary Stand was certainly built with economy in mind. Not only are the seat treads the shortest allowable by law, but if you're sitting in the middle of a row, you'll have to climb over 23 people to get out and go to the toilet. Altogether the Centenary Stand seats 11,400 on two tiers and includes 30 luxury boxes at mid-level.

Looking to the right from the Centenary Stand is the Anfield Road End. This simple stand contains seats for 5,512 on a single tier, including the visiting fans section. It is a rather low stand and offers a great vantage point from every seat. Opposite the Anfield Road End, at the southern end of the ground, is the grand daddy of all football stands, Anfield's Spion Kop. Originally built in 1906, the first Spion Kop's terraces held 30,000 rabid Kopites, and was the largest terrace ever to be built at an English ground. The Kop's members sang and cheered for their Saints like no other team's supporters, making Anfield world famous with their enthusiasm and creating a gameday atmosphere that could not be matched at any other stadium. Kopites were known for their sportsmanship and love of the game, unlike the hooligans who plagued other terraces in the 70s and 80s.

The Kop itself was a truly gargantuan structure, gloomy and fearsome to opposing players because its immense roof covered all the spectators in its shadow, far more brooding than the other great end terraces of this era at Molineux and Villa Park. The Kop was a symbol of Liverpool and even English football itself, and no stand has ever been so loved or so well known as Anfield's Spion Kop. Indeed, on the day before its demolition, over 10,000 attended a farewell concert. It seems ironic that the 96 people who perished at Hillsborough in 1989 were all Liverpool supporters, and their deaths eventually caused the demise of their beloved Kop.

Its replacement, completed in 1995, seats 12,000 and is the largest single tier end stand in football today. At 76 rows deep and sporting a low roof, the new Kop is definitely reminiscant of the old one; but any Kopite will tell you, a seated Spion Kop is just not a Spion Kop.