Craven Cottage has been the home ground of Fulham FC since 1896 and has a capacity of 26,678. However, the highest all-seated attendance to date is just 25,700 recorded in their 1-0 defeat by Arsenal in September 2009. It is located next to Bishop's Park on the banks of the River Thames. Being an old stadium, it comes complete with many supporting pillars. The Riverside stand has 2 fairly well back and the Putney End is very similar with 3, but The Johnny Haynes Stand has many pillars across the front and the Hammersmith End has 2 pillars about half way back, right in the middle.
Away fans are allocated approximately 3,000 seats in the Putney End Stand behind one of the goals. The stand is split between home and away fans. The facilities within the stand are very good, but, there are three rather prominent pillars that can and will obstruct your view if your seat is toward the top half of the stand. The leg room is rather good and the refreshments area underneath the stadium is very spacious and not hugely over priced with a wide range of food and drink.
There are a fair amount of food outlets in the local vicinity and a number of burger vans outside the stadium provide the usual fare of health concious food. As regards public houses, The Crabtree on Rainville Road is approximately 10 minutes from the ground and welcomes home and away supporters. To find it, head away from the away end at the cottage along Stevenage Road and turn left along an alley which runs behind the stand. When you reach the waterside turn right and walk alongside the river. The pub is approximately 500 yards along here on your right.
Parking is very difficult to find on match days. The surrounding areas are residents only or only allow you to stop on the pay and display meters for a maximum of 1 hour. However, it is possible in the streets on the other side of the Fulham Palace Road (A219) to Craven Cottage. It's £1.60 per hour and not limited by time. Bring change and arrive early. Alternatively, it may be cheaper and easier to travel by tube.
Putney Bridge, which is on the District Line is the closest tube stop to Craven Cottage. It is a London Underground station on the Wimbledon branch of the District Line. It is between Parsons Green and East Putney stations and is in Zone 2. It is still a good 15-20 minute walk to the ground from here but seems like so much more after a poor performance or bad result.
The station is located adjacent to Fulham High Street and New Kings Road (A308) and is a short distance from the north end of Putney Bridge from which it takes it's name.
The nearest / closest train station to Fulham's Craven Cottage Stadium is Putney. This is around a 30 minute walk from the ground. Simply exit the station, take a right onto Putney high street and follow it over Putney Bridge and round onto Fulham High street. Once you reach Bishops Park Road on the left hand side, you're free to take any left down onto Stevenage Road where you'll find the stadium.
Travel: Been by coach 3 times, train twice. Coach is a pain and takes forever, the train is great, if just because you get that treat of walking through Bishop’s Park alongside the Thames on a lovely summer day! It's about 20 minutes, but you can't help but enjoy it! Easily the most picturesque ground in the Premiership. Alternatively if you don't want to get off at Putney Bridge and do that, you can get off at Hammersmith and pass plenty more pubs and feeding places!
Refreshments: There was a lovely chippy on the main road, as you come out Putney Bridge station and head away from the ground. Good curry, and even better gravy, as they made it fresh. Also plenty of pubs around the station too. As mentioned above too, endless choices if you walk from Hammersmith.
Impressions: Let's just say it's a ground that is made for lovely spring and summer days! All of the food outlets and toilets andstuff are outside, so while that is brilliant on a day like the last day of the season in 2009, it is not so nice on a horrible windy drizzly day when you have no shelter. Another plus is that they have blokes walking round selling food and drinks from packs on their backs, and it kills a hell of a lot of queuing time. From the seats, the ground is brilliant to look at. Proper old school Johnny Haynes Stevenage Road Stand, and the three modern stands are all very different and with brilliant acoustics.
Atmosphere: As above, the acoustics are unbelievable. It helps that the stands are also made out of weird hardboard stuff which seems to bounce the sound around, as well of course of making a hell of a lot of noise when you stamp your feet. The home fans aren't the best, but there is a little crew in the Hammersmith End who give it some. To be fair to Fulham, the atmosphere was dire and the ground half empty on my first visit, but they have really grown and improved in the last few years. We regularly sell out there, as well as taking up most of the neutral end so it's usually a great atmosphere from us too, even though we always lose there!
Anything Else: Probably the only ground in this country where a completely neutral end could work and be a roaring success. It's so strange being inside the away end at a ground and mixing with opposition fans, but Fulham are so placid and easy going, it works for them. Though it is pretty grim actually sitting in the neutral section, as you just don't know what kind of weirdos you're sitting with …we sat in there once, after I'd already sold my tickets thinking I couldn't go… we were sat around tourists, an odd lesbian couple and a load of oddballs who seemed to have no grasp on football and what it was they were watching! They also play Town Called Hypocrisy when the teams walk out for the second half, so there is very much an awesomeness about Craven Cottage!
Enjoy: Boss little ground, pain to get to and we always lose, but it's always a hell of a day, especially if you're lucky enough to go there on a nice day!
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