53 Facts About Fratton Park

Fratton Park is a football ground in Portsmouth, England, which is the home of Portsmouth FC Fratton Park remains as the only home football ground in Portsmouth FC's entire history.

Early Fratton Park was designed by local architect Arthur Cogswell and built in 1899 on the site of a market garden in Milton, a Portsea Island farming village.

Fratton Park was first opened to the public on Tuesday 15 August 1899.

The highest recorded attendance in Fratton Park's history was a crowd of 51,385 on 26 February 1949, for an FA Cup Sixth Round match vs Derby County.

On 26 July 1948, Fratton Park hosted a Netherlands vs Ireland first-round football game in the 1948 London Olympics, one of only two grounds outside London to host matches in the Olympic football tournament.

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On 22 February 1956, Fratton Park became the first English football ground to stage an evening Football League match under artificial light, against Newcastle United.

The original floodlights, positioned at opposite ends on top of Fratton Park's South Stand and North Stand roofs, were replaced in 1962 by floodlight tower pylons in the four corners of the ground.

Fratton Park was used as part of the 70-day long London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay route.

Fratton Park is affectionately nicknamed "The Old Girl" by Portsmouth supporters, and has a reputation for high attendances and a powerful atmosphere, similar to that of larger capacity stadia.

Fratton Park is built in a traditional English style with four separate stands of varied designs and sizes and arranged closely around the four sides of the football pitch.

Four stands in Fratton Park are named The North Stand, The South Stand, The Milton End and The Fratton End.

At the western end of Fratton Park is the single tier 4,500 seat Fratton End, which first opened on 31 October 1997 and is the newest and tallest stand in Fratton Park.

The Fratton Park End had an official opening ceremony on 4 April 1998, timed to coincide with a home match that was one day before the centennial anniversary of Portsmouth FC on 5 April 1998.

The current Fratton Park End replaced an earlier two-tier Fratton Park End built in 1956, which had its upper tier demolished in 1986 for structural reasons.

The remaining lower tier of the Fratton Park End was demolished eleven seasons later in 1997 to clear the land for the building of the current Fratton Park End stand in 1997.

Fratton Park is actually named after the nearby Fratton railway station and not the geographic area of Fratton of Portsmouth.

Fratton Park was built in 1899 on a plot of agricultural land in Milton, a small rural village on the east side of Portsea Island.

East stand of Fratton Park is named the Milton End, an acknowledgement to the actual village of Milton that the football ground was built in.

Former nineteenth century villages of Milton and Fratton Park are now residential areas of the present-day city of Portsmouth, the physical boundaries of the two former villages are now blurred by the modern-day urban sprawl of the city of Portsmouth.

However, Milton and Fratton Park still have defined official boundaries; Milton and Fratton Park are physically separated by the Portsmouth Direct line railway line, they have separate political voting wards and have distinctively different postal codes.

However, Fratton Park retains a PO4 8RA Milton postcode and not the PO1 area postal code of Fratton and Portsmouth's city centre.

Fratton Park is closest to Fratton railway station, roughly one mile to the west of the ground.

Fratton Park is actually a one-mile walk east of Fratton railway station and Fratton itself.

Today, some Portsmouth fans erroneously believe that Fratton Park is in Portsmouth's Fratton area, literally because of the stadium's name and lacking the correct facts of Milton's long history.

Fratton Park is located north of the line with Milton to the south.

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Fratton Park is south of the railway line, and thus is in Milton.

The Fratton Park pitch was surrounded by hooped metal fence railings.

In June 2021, Portsmouth FC began a planned four year refurbishment of Fratton Park by removing and replacing the North Stand's seats, which were originally fitted in 1996.

When Fratton Park first opened on 15 August 1899, no stands or terracing existed yet at the Milton and Fratton ends.

In 1905, the sight lines for supporters at the east end of Fratton Park were improved by the construction of an open air solid earthbank terrace, covered with wooden plank steps over layers of cinders and compacted top soil.

In 1974, Fratton Park became the first football stadium in England to dig "moats" between the pitch and the stands to prevent supporters invading the pitch.

When Fratton Park first opened on 15 August 1899, no stands or terracing existed yet at today's Fratton and Milton ends.

On 14 April 1956, Portsmouth FC applied to Portsmouth City Council for planning permission to build a new Fratton Park End stand, with permission granted just six days later on 20 April 1956.

The new Fratton Park End was built with a roofed upper section and an open-air lower terrace, bisected by a concrete wall which ran across the full width of the new stand, with two large vomitories permitting access to the exterior ground level at the rear of the stand.

In 1974, Fratton Park became the first football stadium in England to dig deep "moat" trenches between the pitch and the stands to prevent supporters invading the pitch.

The remaining lower terrace of the Fratton Park End continued to be used onwards from 1988 for a further nine years up until 1997, giving the Fratton Park End a much less impressive appearance and crowd volume than before.

On 14 January 1991, a second new design for a replacement Fratton Park End was granted a conditional five-year planning permission, which required the removal of both floodlight towers at the Fratton Park End.

Plans showed that the Fratton Park End's two existing corner floodlight towers would have been removed and replaced with two large lighting towers built directly onto the top of a cantilever-truss Fratton Park End roof.

Again, both of the Fratton Park End's floodlight towers would have been removed, but replaced with free-standing modern replacements at either side.

Summer of 1997 saw the final demolition of the remaining 1956 Fratton Park End's lower terrace, ironically which had only just had plastic seats installed in 1996.

The new Fratton Park End was much larger than the previous 1956 stand and claimed 6 yards of land previously occupied by the Fratton Park End "moat", which was filled in.

Additional floodlights had been designed into the rooftop of the new Fratton Park End stand to counteract negative effects of dark shadows.

Between 2002 and 2005, the Fratton Park End was commercially branded as "The Ty Europe Stand" under a shirt sponsorship agreement with the Ty Europe division of Ty Inc, the manufacturer of "Beanie Babies" soft toys.

Fratton Park End is known today for housing the most vocal of Portsmouth FC's home supporters and are arguably, 'the loudest in the land' according to some television commentators.

In 1962, floodlight pylon towers were constructed in the four corners of Fratton Park, replacing the original roof-top sets installed in 1956.

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Pompey, built in 1900, is currently the oldest surviving building at Fratton Park, although was not built as part of the original 1899 era stadium.

Fratton Park's pavilion was built immediately to the north of The Pompey pub which Cogswell had built in 1900.

On 5 October 1961, planning permission was granted to Portsmouth FC to construct four new floodlight tower pylons in the four corners of Fratton Park, replacing the original 1956 roof-top sets which were removed after the four new towers were constructed in 1962.

Fratton Park has hosted one full England international match on 2 March 1903 against Wales and has hosted some England U-21 internationals.

On 26 July 1948, Fratton Park hosted a Netherlands vs Ireland first-round football game in the 1948 London Olympics, one of only two grounds outside London to host matches in the Olympic football tournament.

On 16 July 2012, Fratton Park acted as the start location of Day 59 of the seventy day long London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay.

The Portsmouth Fratton Park racecourse was closed in 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War and turned into an ammunition dump.

In 2011, plans to spend money redeveloping Fratton Park were announced, with improvements to changing rooms and toilets.