Plough Lane

Plough Lane

The South Stand, pictured in 2000
Location	Wimbledon, London, England
Coordinates	51°25′42.5″N 0°11′22.8″W / 51.428472°N 0.189667°W / 51.428472; -0.189667Coordinates: 51°25′42.5″N 0°11′22.8″W / 51.428472°N 0.189667°W / 51.428472; -0.189667
Owner	Merton Borough Council (1912–1959) Wimbledon F.C. (1959–1984) Sam Hammam (1984–1998) Safeway (1998–2002)
Operator	Wimbledon F.C. (1912–1998) Crystal Palace F.C. (1991–1998)
Capacity	15,876
Surface	Grass
Construction
Built	1912
Opened	September 1912
Renovated	1957
Closed	April 1998 (last football game) 2001 (Safeway supermarket)
Demolished	2002
Tenants
Wimbledon F.C. (1912–1991) Wimbledon F.C. Reserves (1991–1998) Crystal Palace F.C. Reserves (1991–1998)

Plough Lane was a football stadium in Wimbledon, south west London. For nearly eighty years it was the home ground of Wimbledon Football Club, from September 1912 until May 1991, when the club moved their first team home matches to Selhurst Park as part of a groundshare agreement with Crystal Palace. Both clubs' reserve teams then used Plough Lane as their home ground until 1998, when the site was sold to Safeway. Whilst site redevelopment plans were negotiated, the stadium remained derelict for several years until it was finally demolished in 2002. The site then became a private housing development known as Reynolds Gate, completed in 2008.

Plans to build a new stadium for AFC Wimbledon on the nearby site of the Wimbledon Greyhound track, approximately 200 yards from the original Plough Lane stadium, were approved by Merton Council in December 2015.

The leasehold on the disused swampland at the corner of Plough Lane and Haydons Road was purchased by Wimbledon Football Club in 1912. The pitch was consequently fenced in and the playing surface improved, while a dressing room was built. A stand holding 500 spectators was erected, and Wimbledon played their first match at the ground on 7 September 1912, a friendly match against Carshalton Athletic which was drawn 2–2. Improvements continued to be made to the ground during the First World War, and Plough Lane soon became the pride of the club — in 1918, Vice-president A. Gill Knight boasted that the club had "the finest ground in the southern district".

During the 1920s, crowds were regularly taken at between five and eight thousand. The South Stand was added in 1923, purchased from Clapton Orient. The terrace in front of the North Stand was improved during 1932–33, and by the start of the Second World War the ground's capacity stood at 30,000. The ground was even used as the site of an amateur international match, when England took on Wales on 19 January 1935. However damage attained during the Second World War meant that extensive redevelopment was necessary after the club returned in 1944 — the South Stand had been bombed, and the incomplete fencing meant the club couldn't even charge for admission. Half-time collections were taken to keep Wimbledon going.