WEST HAM’S Boleyn Ground hosted its last-ever match in 2016.
The Hammers said goodbye to what had been their home for 112 years after a thrilling 3-2 win over Manchester United.
The historic stadium was the setting for West Ham’s European Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in 1976, a nervy FA Cup quarter-final victory over Aston Villa in 1980 and Paolo Di Canio’s stunning scissor-kick goal against Wimbledon in 2000.
It was also the breeding ground for club and country heroes like World Cup winners Geoff Hurst, Bobby Moore and Martin Peters, as well as more recent internationals Joe Cole, Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand and Declan Rice.
The Boleyn Ground, also known as Upton Park, was also home to Charlton Athletic in the early 1990s while The Valley was redeveloped following the Bradford City Stadium fire.
But the Hammers opted to look to the future rather than at the past and moved on for pastures new as they switched the East End for Stratford and became the tenants of the 2012 Olympic venue, the London Stadium.
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After West Ham’s departure from the Boleyn Ground, it was sold off to property developers for a reported £38million.
The stadium was then demolished, partly by builders and partly as part of a film shoot as it was the set for the 2018 action flick Final Score, starring Pierce Brosnan and Dave Bautista.
It was also featured in the 2005 film Green Street based on West Ham’s hooligan fans and their rivalry with Millwall.
It has since been converted into 842 stunning flats called Upton Gardens.
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The properties vary in price with one-bed flats valued at £350,000 and two-bed maisonettes priced at least at £486,000 – with the total value of the flats in the region of £340million.
While there are no longer the towering castles and the old ‘Chicken Run’ stand there are a few nods to the area’s sporting past.
SunSport has been told that the legacy of the site and its importance to West Ham have been preserved with the theme for the entire public realm being “bubbles” – after the club’s iconic “Forever Blowing Bubbles” song.
This connection runs through the design of the lattice work on the balconies, the public artwork and wider landscaping – including Legacy Walk which forms a green throughway at the centre of the scheme, celebrating the history of the former football ground.
The other Hammers-inspired features at Upton Gardens include public seating based on its East Stand colonnade and statuettes around the development.
There is also an open space where the old centre circle would have been.
The development boasts a residents’ gym and a concierge service.
There were also plans to build a cafe and a library.
The old ground had taken its name from its former tenant football team Boleyn Castle, which is what the ground was known locally as.
This is because of its association with King Henry VIII’s second wife Anne Boleyn, who was thought to have owned the building during her life.
The ground was temporarily closed during World War Two after a V-1 flying bomb fell on the southwest corner of the pitch, forcing West Ham to play at other grounds while it was repaired.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
