Crystal Palace Main Stand redevelopment

December 2024 update

Following a summer of preliminary works, the Main Stand development is progressing well and is currently in its final planning phase, including ongoing negotiations with contractors, with the intention of starting building works at the conclusion of the 2024/25 football season.

In the summer, Crystal Palace FC signed the final legal agreements with Croydon Council for the redevelopment of the Main Stand.

Initial enabling works have begun towards the construction, including some minor adjustments to the existing Main Stand, and preparations for the expected site footprint.

As is common practice for a development of this magnitude, the club have identified the potential for a small range of Minor Material Amendments to the original stadium design plans, and are in communication with local residents and Croydon Council to obtain permission for these.

These amendments include:

• An updated seating layout to meet new safety guidance;
• Changes to the parking plans, to reduce disruption to local residents;
• Improvements to the proposed Fanzone, car park, and Sainsbury’s car park to meet operational needs and increase greening;
• Enhancing the entrance to the new stand on the Holmesdale Road corner;
• Refinement of the materials and design of the new stand.

The main contractor has completed the Construction Management Plan for the construction phase, and will shortly conclude with Croydon Council – this will help to ensure that lorries entering and leaving the construction site will create the minimum disturbance to residents. This will be constantly monitored and enforced by the contractor and the club.

June 2024 update

Preliminary building projects relating to the first steps of construction of the new Main Stand at Selhurst Park are underway and progressing well, with a further range of steps being undertaken during the summer period.

The Main Stand redevelopment project will overhaul Selhurst Park, which has been the club’s home since 1924, and transform supporters’ matchday experience, increasing capacity from 26,000 to more than 34,000 while providing new year-round community facilities.

The construction of the new stand will look to be built around the existing structure, with the aim of keeping the stadium fully operational throughout the build. The video below demonstrates how this process is envisaged to take place.

A development of this magnitude and complexity, particularly with the need to keep the existing stand open, requires reconfiguration of areas of the ground and careful chronological organisation of the process.

You will see from the video that, whilst the main seating area will be left in place during the whole construction process so that we can maintain the unique Selhurst Park atmosphere, the Palace for Life Foundation offices, away dressing rooms and some of the hospitality areas and bars – including Speroni’s Restaurant and the Stanley Stephenson Lounge – will be removed and replaced by temporary facilities. For the hospitality areas, this will be a combination of increased space within the current stand – currently occupied by the club’s offices – and temporary facilities in the current car park area.

To facilitate this, new offices are currently being erected in a club-owned building behind the Whitehorse Lane stand (previously Crystals Nightclub). The new office will house the club’s commercial and operations teams, as well as Foundation staff. This will also house a marketing suite for the new Main Stand.

Image credit: MDC

The famous Selhurst Park portacabin, situated between the Main Stand and Holmesdale Road Stand, will also be removed as part of the works to improve access for construction traffic and to allow the construction of the support towers for the stand’s roof.

In recent seasons, the portacabin has housed the opposition changing rooms, which will need to be relocated until the dressing rooms are finished in the new stand. The opposition changing rooms will therefore be placed underneath the Holmesdale Road stand. However, the basement of that stand is not currently watertight but as you can see from the pictures below £1million worth of investment has already begun to make the area completely dry and fit for purpose. When finalised, this space will also house a new kitchen to facilitate all hospitality requirements on both matchdays and non-matchdays, as well as additional parking due to the loss of the current club car park.

As well as this enabling work, the club are in the process of clearing a number of formal barriers towards commencing construction. This includes completing the purchase of six houses located in Wooderson Close. Of the six houses, we are in the process of acquiring all five of the council-owned properties, and we are working with the relevant parties to acquire one privately owned property through a compulsory purchase order (CPO).

We have also reached an agreement with Sainsbury’s over the purchase of a piece of land in the car park and have an option to acquire in place.

In tandem with the above construction, we are finalising the detailed construction drawings and going out to tender for every detailed area, including steel, cladding, bricks and glass materials, whilst also building a computerised three-dimensional model of the stadium in order to visualise the interior spaces, design and movement of people through each general admission and hospitality area.

October 2022 update

Crystal Place Football Club’s updated planning application for a new Main Stand at Selhurst Park has been approved by Croydon councillors, paving the way for a transformation of the stadium.

Croydon’s planning committee first gave the application the green light four years ago, but it was delayed by the COVID pandemic and the Club recently submitted minor adjustments to the scheme to adhere to new London Plan requirements.

This required fresh approval before planning permission could be granted and any work could begin, together with the signing of Section 106 agreements and approval from the Mayor’s Office.

The Main Stand development will overhaul Selhurst Park, which has been the Club’s home since 1924, transforming the match-day experience and providing new year-round community facilities.

Inspired by the Club’s heritage, the design pays homage to the original Crystal Palace on Sydenham Hill and will increase capacity from 26,000 to more than 34,000.

None of the changes to the planning application will alter the size or scale of the scheme. The amendments comprise:

• Minor internal design changes, following advice from a fire engineer, with alterations to the positions of doors and stair/lift cores, the provision of an additional evacuation lift, and additional partitions to separate lobbies.
• Minor external changes to the west elevation to reflect the revised positioning of entrances at ground floor, following advice from a fire engineer.
• Revisions to the landscaping scheme to reflect consultant advice received on security, landscaping and sustainable drainage, with a clear line of sight to the Fan Zone, the provision of sustainable urban drainage systems on-site and the retention of additional trees.

Once planning permission is formally approved, the Club will be able to agree plans for the acquisition of six houses in Wooderson Close and the relocation of residents, and to conclude ongoing discussions with Sainsbury’s to acquire a piece of land required for the development.

Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish said: “I would like to thank Croydon Council for their continued support for the stadium redevelopment, which will bring substantial investment into the borough, as well as breathing new life into Selhurst Park.

“We would have liked to have started the project sooner, but our plans were delayed by financial constraints caused by the Covid pandemic. In the last couple of years our focus has been on bringing our exciting Academy development to fruition, but our attention will now turn to the stadium project.

“It has long been our ambition to extend and modernise Selhurst Park, making it a home fit for the 21st century.

“We are looking forward to getting started on the project. There is a lot of preparatory work to be done in the coming months and we will update on a likely timetable in due course”.

The new Main Stand

• The new Main Stand will hold 13,500 supporters, compared to 5,200 currently housed in the stand that was built in 1924
• All-glass front
• Three tiers of seating
• 25,072sqm inside
• 41 metres tall
• New Club Shop, museum and cafe