Lost Football Grounds | Photographs of Britain’s Departed Stadiums

August 26, 2026

LOST GROUNDS – THE PLACES FOOTBALL LEFT BEHIND

Football grounds are more than somewhere a match takes place. They become part of the identity of a club, its supporters and the communities that surround them.

Elm Park, Reading versus Wycombe Wanderers. Tony Davis — Elm Park, Reading, 1996. © Tony Davis

The walk to the ground. The same turnstile. The pub on the corner. Brick walls, old stands, floodlights above rooftops and the particular view from the place you always stood or sat.

Then, eventually, they’re gone.

Lower Block’s Lost Grounds Collection brings together photography documenting some of British football’s most fondly remembered former homes – from Elm Park, The Victoria Ground, Maine Road and Highbury to Highfield Road, the Boleyn Ground, White Hart Lane and Scunthorpe’s Old Showground.

Some were outdated and unquestionably needed replacing. Others – Stoke City’s Victoria Ground among them – remain desperately missed by supporters who grew up there.

The photographs aren’t simply records of stadium architecture. They preserve the people, streets, rituals and details that made each place distinctive.

Football moves forward. Grounds change, clubs relocate and new stadiums rise in their place. But for generations of supporters, these old grounds remain tied to friendships, family, growing up and going to the match.

Places disappear. The memories don’t.