Victoria Road stadium

Stadium in/near Dagenham East, existing between 1917 and now.

 HOME  ·  ARTICLE  ·  MAPS  ·  STREETS  ·  BLOG  ·  CONTACT US 
(51.5478 0.1599, 51.547 0.159) 
MAP YEAR:175018001810182018301860190019502024Show map without markers
Use the control in the top right of the map above to view this area on another historic map
 
Stadium · * · ·
MAY
9
2018
The Victoria Road stadium, under various sponsorship names, is the home ground of Dagenham & Redbridge F.C.

The site on Victoria Road has been a football ground since 1917, when it was used by the Sterling Works side, whose factory was situated alongside it. It was not fully enclosed until the summer of 1955, when Briggs Sports moved out to Rush Green Road, and Dagenham F.C. moved from the Arena. During that summer they levelled and re-seeded the pitch, removed the stones from the playing surface and extended the banking and the terracing. The only cover was a tiny wooden stand, which was steep and narrow and had a few rows of seating on the far side of the ground. The main stand was built in the autumn of 1955 and was opened on 7 January 1956 by J.W. Bowers, chairman of the Essex County Football Association. During the summer of 1956 the turnstile block at the Victoria Road side of the ground and the men’s toilets situated at the Victoria Road were added. In the summer of 1958 the cover over the far side was erected at a cost of £1,400. The first floodlit match at Victoria Road was Dagenham v Woodford in the FA Youth Cup on 26 September 1957 and the first senior match was a friendly against Rainham Town F.C. on 19 March 1958. The attendance record was set in 1967 with the visit of Reading F.C. in the FA Cup when 7,200 crammed into the ground.

Although the ground was regularly maintained, it changed little until the arrival of Redbridge Forest in 1990 to ground share. They paid for a new stand to be erected in the corner of the ground to increase the seating capacity and replaced the grass banking with concrete terracing. These improvements brought the ground up to the standard required by the Football Conference. Redbridge Forest and Dagenham merged in July 1992 and the ground improvements have continued right up to the present day. In 1995 they replaced the crumbling pitch perimeter wall with a new brick-built one and two years later rebuilt the toilet block at the Victoria Road end of the ground. The club brought in Bill O’Neil from Atcost to design and build a new purpose-built stand. The new 800-seater, which brings the seating capacity to over a thousand, was used for the first time for the Essex Senior Cup final against Canvey Island on 4 August 2001, twelve weeks after the old stand was last used. During summer 2001 new turnstile blocks were constructed and the eight floodlights were replaced with four corner ones.

In October 2001, Bass brewers agreed a £150,000 sponsorship of the new stand, now named the Carling Stand. This provided the funds for the improvements to continue and a number of crush barriers were installed in 2002, which helped ease the flow of spectators around the ground along with a new walkway behind the covered terrace. Whilst the Dagenham & Redbridge record attendance is 5,949, set against Ipswich Town in January 2002, these improvements have enabled the ground to meet Football League status and the capacity is now 6,078. In July 2007 a new sponsorship deal was set up with the Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council with the stadium renamed the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham Stadium.

The Traditional Builders & Contractors Ltd Stand at the west end of the ground (Pondfield Road end) was built during the close season of 2009; it has a capacity of 1,240 and is all seated. Access to the away stand is via gates at the far end of the ground from the entrance via Victoria Road. The stand has disabled facilities, and also incorporates a bar, snack bar, and new club office and changing facilities. The players now emerge onto the pitch from a tunnel in the stand (left) rather than the old tunnel in the middle of the Carling Stand.

The floodlights were replaced in the summer of 2012 bringing the, now renamed, Chigwell Construction Stadium fully up to the new Football League regulations with regards to floodlighting.


Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence


Click here to explore another London street
We now have 666 completed street histories and 46834 partial histories
Find streets or residential blocks within the M25 by clicking STREETS


CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LOCALITY

None so far :(
LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

Comment
Tony Whipple   
Added: 16 Apr 2024 21:35 GMT   

Frank Whipple Place, E14
Frank was my great-uncle, I’d often be ’babysat’ by Peggy while Nan and Dad went to the pub. Peggy was a marvel, so full of life. My Dad and Frank didn’t agree on most politics but everyone in the family is proud of him. A genuinely nice, knowledgable bloke. One of a kind.

Reply
Comment
Theresa Penney   
Added: 16 Apr 2024 18:08 GMT   

1 Whites Row
My 2 x great grandparents and his family lived here according to the 1841 census. They were Dutch Ashkenazi Jews born in Amsterdam at the beginning of the 19th century but all their children were born in Spitalfields.

Reply
Comment
Wendy    
Added: 22 Mar 2024 15:33 GMT   

Polygon Buildings
Following the demolition of the Polygon, and prior to the construction of Oakshott Court in 1974, 4 tenement type blocks of flats were built on the site at Clarendon Sq/Phoenix Rd called Polygon Buildings. These were primarily for people working for the Midland Railway and subsequently British Rail. My family lived for 5 years in Block C in the 1950s. It seems that very few photos exist of these buildings.

Reply

Steve   
Added: 19 Mar 2024 08:42 GMT   

Road construction and houses completed
New Charleville Circus road layout shown on Stanford’s Library Map Of London And Its Suburbs 1879 with access via West Hill only.

Plans showing street numbering were recorded in 1888 so we can concluded the houses in Charleville Circus were built by this date.

Source: Charleville Circus, Sydenham, London

Reply
Comment
Steve   
Added: 19 Mar 2024 08:04 GMT   

Charleville Circus, Sydenham: One Place Study (OPS)
One Place Study’s (OPS) are a recent innovation to research and record historical facts/events/people focused on a single place �’ building, street, town etc.

I have created an open access OPS of Charleville Circus on WikiTree that has over a million members across the globe working on a single family tree for everyone to enjoy, for free, forever.

Source: Charleville Circus, Sydenham, London

Reply
Comment
Charles   
Added: 8 Mar 2024 20:45 GMT   

My House
I want to know who lived in my house in the 1860’s.

Reply

NH   
Added: 7 Mar 2024 11:41 GMT   

Telephone House
Donald Hunter House, formerly Telephone House, was the BT Offices closed in 2000

Reply
Comment
Paul Cox   
Added: 5 Mar 2024 22:18 GMT   

War damage reinstatement plans of No’s 11 & 13 Aldine Street
Whilst clearing my elderly Mothers house of general detritus, I’ve come across original plans (one on acetate) of No’s 11 & 13 Aldine Street. Might they be of interest or should I just dispose of them? There are 4 copies seemingly from the one single acetate example. Seems a shame to just junk them as the level of detail is exquisite. No worries if of no interest, but thought I’d put it out there.

Reply



LOCAL PHOTOS
Click here to see map view of nearby Creative Commons images
Click here to see Creative Commons images near to this postcode



  Contact us · Copyright policy · Privacy policy