Patrick Comerford
Villa Park in Aston, Birmingham, has been the home of Aston Villa since 1897 and is the tenth largest stadium in England, with a seating capacity of 42,640. Villa Park, which I visited on Friday afternoon, has hosted 16 England internationals at senior level, the first in 1899 and the most recent in 2005, and has also hosted 55 FA Cup semi-finals, more than any other stadium.
In 1897, Aston Villa moved into the Aston Lower Grounds, a sports ground in a Victorian amusement park in the former grounds of Aston Hall, a Jacobean stately home built by the Holte family. The stadium has gone through many renovations and developments, giving the current configuration of the Holte End, Trinity Road Stand, North Stand and Doug Ellis Stand.
But Villa Park was not the club’s first home. From 1876 until 1897, Aston Villa played at Wellington Road in Perry Barr. At first there were no proper facilities, players changed in a blacksmith’s shed nearby, and a hayrick kept on the pitch had to be removed before matches. The ground was gradually improved, a grandstand and two pavilions were built.
The record attendance at Wellington Road was 26,849 at an FA Cup fifth round match on 7 January 1888, when Preston North End won 3-1. The match was marred by a huge pitch invasion, the first serious incidence of crowd trouble in English football.
While still at Wellington Road, Aston Villa was one of the founder members of the Football League in 1888, and the first League match was played there on 15 September 1888, when Villa beat Stoke 5-1 in front of 2,000 people.
Wellington Road hosted two FA Cup semi-finals in the 1890s: Bolton Wanderers v Sheffield Wednesday in 1890, and Derby County v Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1896. It was also the home venue for an international match when England defeated Ireland 6-1 on 25 February 1893.
The Villa chair, Frederick Rinder (1858-1938), began negotiations in 1894 with the owners of the Aston Lower Grounds, ‘the finest sports ground in the district.’ The Lower Grounds were in the former grounds of Aston Hall, a Jacobean stately home built by the Holte family, and had seen a variety of uses over the years.
The last league match at Wellington Road was played on 22 March 1897, when Villa beat Bolton Wanderers 6-2. Villa moved to Villa Park at the end of that season. Part of the old site at Perry Barr was later used for housing, while the rest of it became a car park, pub and recreation grounds.
The new grounds were originally the kitchen gardens of Aston Hall, built by Sir Thomas Holte, whose name is recalled in the Holte End stand. The Lower Grounds had become a Victorian amusement park with an aquarium and a great hall. The present pitch stands on the site of the Dovehouse Pool, an ornamental pond that was drained and replaced with a cycle track and sports ground that opened on 10 June 1889 before a crowd of 15,000.
Negotiations continued for two years before Villa agreed to rent the site for £300 a year on a 21-year lease, with an option to buy.
Much of the credit for the design of Villa Park goes to Frederick Rinder, an architect and surveyor with Birmingham City Council, who laid down ‘every level and line’ of the ground himself before building began. The main stand was built to the east on the Witton Lane side, with a cycling track and a pitch fully enclosed by banking. The stadium opened on 17 April 1897, a week after Aston Villa had completed the League and FA Cup Double. A friendly against Blackburn Rovers ended in a 3-0 win for Villa.
Villa bought the freehold of the ground for £8,250 in 1911, the office buildings in the old aquarium and car park area for £1,500 and the carriage drive and bowling green for £2,000, and the capacity of Villa Park was increased to 104,000.
Another phase of developments began in 1914. The cycling track was removed, new banking was put in place at the Holte Hotel End (Holte End), and all the terracing was overhauled. Rinder commissioned the architect Archibald Leitch to design a new Villa Park, but the outbreak of World War I hampered these plans.
It was some years before plans were revived the new Trinity Road Stand. The Duke of York, later King George VI, officially opened the new stand 100 years ago on 26 January 1924, and told Rinder he had ‘no idea that a ground so finely equipped in every way – and devoted to football – existed.’
The Trinity Road Stand had stained glass windows, Italian mosaics, Dutch gables in the style of Aston Hall and a sweeping staircase. It was one of the grandest in Britain, and the Oak Room was the first restaurant at a British football ground. Several commentators saw it as Leitch’s masterpiece, and one labelled it the ‘St Pancras of football.’ But the costs enraged the directors and Rinder was forced to resign in 1925. He returned to the board in 1936 at the age of 78, and died in 1938.
The earth and timber terraces with wooden barriers were replaced by concrete terracing and metal barriers in 1930s. A complete redevelopment and extension of the Holte End began in early 1939, but World War II suddenly stopped all work.
Unusually, Villa got permission to continue building the Holte End. Work was completed by April 1940, but the stand was moth-balled as Villa Park found a new wartime role: the Trinity Road Stand became an air-raid shelter, and ammunition store and the home dressing room was a home for a rifle company in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. However, German bombs did £20,000 worth of damage to the Witton Lane Stand.
Four projects began in the late 1950s. The old Bowling Green pavilion on Trinity Road became a medical centre, the basement of the aquarium building became a gym, new floodlights were installed, and a new training ground was bought. The Holte End was roofed in the 1960s, providing cover for terrace fans, and the old roof on the Witton Lane Stand was replaced.
Villa Park hosted three matches during the 1966 World Cup, but the Witton Lane Stand had to become all-seater, the players’ tunnel was covered with a cage and the pitch was widened.
Doug Ellis began redeveloping Villa Park from 1969 on. He updated the infrastructure, installed a new public address system, carried out plumbing work, resurfaced the terraces, and a new ticket office and executive lounges replaced the old offices in the Trinity Road Stand.
The Witton End stand was redeveloped in 1976-1977, after Villa returned to the First Division. The novelties included an ‘AV’ logo spelled out in coloured seats and a double row of executive boxes, and the new Witton End stand was renamed the North Stand.
Following the Hillsborough disaster and the Taylor Report, the North Stand terracing was replaced with 2,900 seats, the Holte End’s roof was extended in preparation for more seats, the Trinity Road Stand roof was replaced, corporate boxes were added to the Witton Lane Stand, and new floodlights were installed.
An application to demolish the Holte Hotel was rejected in 1992, but permission was given for a new stand to replace the Witton Lane Stand. The new stand opened in 1994, bringing the capacity of Villa Park to 46,005. It was renamed the ‘Doug Ellis Stand’, but some fans continued to call it the Witton Lane Stand.
The Holte End was the only remaining stand that did not meet the Taylor Report requirements. A decision was taken to build a new, two-tier stand with 13,501 seats, bringing capacity to 40,310. When it was finished, the Holte was the largest single end stand in Britain.
The Trinity Road Stand, which had stood since 1922, was redeveloped in 2000 and was officially opened in 2001 by Prince Charles (now King Charles), whose grandfather George VI opened the old stand in 1924.
Today, Villa Park has 42,682 seats, split between four stands: the Holte End, the Trinity Road Stand, the Doug Ellis Stand, and the North Stand.
The Holte End is a large two-tiered stand at the south end of the stadium. Two large staircases, pediments, Dutch gables and a mosaic introduced in the 2007 season in the style of the old Trinity Road Stand make up the façade, which was inspired by Aston Hall. The Holte End is the most renowned stand at Villa Park among home and away supporters, and traditionally Villa’s most vocal and passionate supporters gather there.
The main, three-tier Trinity Road Stand houses the dressing rooms, club offices, directors’ boxes, the players' tunnel, the technical area, and the press and the directors’ VIP area. Below the upper tiers, Trinity Road cuts behind the ground and passes through a tunnel formed by the Trinity Road Stand.
The North Stand, the oldest stand, was once known as the Witton End. The upper-tier seats are claret with ‘AV’ written in blue; the lower tier has sky blue seats. Since the segregation of supporters in the 1970s, away fans were first seated in the lower tier of the North Stand. Later, away fans were moved to the north end of the Doug Ellis Stand, and since then the North Stand has been fully occupied by Villa supporters, with the most vocal and fervent of them in the lower tier.
The ‘Villa Village’ behind the North Stand includes the club and ticket offices and a new club shop that opened to large numbers last Friday (16 August 2024).
A bronze statue of Villa chairman and Football League founder William McGregor was unveiled outside the stadium on 28 November 2009.
Villa Park has hosted England internationals, the first in 1899 and the most recent in 2005. It was the first English ground to stage international football in three centuries – the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries – and has hosted 16 international matches in all. Three 1966 World Cup matches were played there and four matches during Euro ’96. The ground has hosted England internationals, the first in 1899 and the most recent in 2005, and 16 international matches have been hosted at the stadium in total.
Villa Park has hosted 55 FA Cup semi-finals, more than any other stadium, the League Cup Final in 1981 and the last final of the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1999. When the new Wembley Stadium was being built in 2001-2005, the FA Trophy Final was held at Villa Park.
The ground was also the venue for major cricket matches in the 1870s and 1880s, many athletic and cycle events before World War I, the first ever rugby league test series and several international rugby union fixtures.
It has been a venue for concerts and preachers, including Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Duran Duran and Rod Stewart, and Billy Graham in 1984 and Archbishop Desmond Tutu in 1989.
Aston Villa has plans to redevelop the North Stand and to increase the capacity of Villa Park from 42,640 to 50,065. The plans also include building a commercial and entertainment venue, ‘Villa Live’. The original plan was to complete the renovations in time for UEFA Euro 2028, but since last December the plans have been on hold indefinitely.
As for the Holte at the corner of Trinity Road and Witton Lane, it remains a landmark for fans walking up to Villa Park from Aston station. The Holte Hotel was built in 1897, the year the club moved to Villa Park. It once had 10 bedrooms, a 400-capacity music hall, billiard rooms and two bowling greens. It was a Mitchells & Butlers public house for much the 20th century it, but was closed from the late 1970s until it was restored and reopened in 2007.
