Chelsea back in to acquire land neighboring stadium from Stoll veterans’ home — report

Just before the previous stadium plans were put on hold in 2018, Chelsea had struck a deal with the neighboring Sir Oswald Stoll Mansions to acquire 60 per cent of their land, or about 1.2 acres, as they themselves began planning a rebuild and expansion. That £50m deal was put on hold however when our stadium plans were as well.

Now, over four years later, it sounds like the Mansions are still going ahead with their plans, with the 1.2 acre plot reportedly up for public auction instead. The Daily Mail claim that Chelsea are thus also back in with a bid, as part of our own newly restarted stadium planning under the new ownership. The cut-off date for bids is the “beginning of December and an announcement of the buyer is due before the end of the year”, adds the report.

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The Mansions sit on a strip of land between the main west facade of the stadium and the Fulham-Broadway tube station, and when this acquisition (usually shown as the upper half of their site, away from the main road) was proposed in 2018, the assumption was that it would allow for better and more direct access between the two. Some had pointed out that the added acreage could in theory also allow the stadium to be rotated 45-90 degrees, though the plans for the Cathedral of Football had not taken that into account — nor would any sort of stand-by-stand rebuild; it would have to be a complete teardown.

In any case, acquiring the land and adding to the available footprint should be helpful for any future development projects.

source: LBHF