Plough Lane

Plough Lane was a football stadium in Wimbledon, south-west London. It stood on a corner where Plough Lane met Haydons Road. For nearly eighty years it served as the home ground of Wimbledon Football Club. The club moved its first team matches away in 1991, but reserve teams kept using the ground until 1998. After demolition in 2002 the site became a private housing development called Reynolds Gate, completed in 2008. The ground grew from a fenced pitch with a 500-seat stand in 1912 to a 30,000-capacity stadium by the Second World War. Vice-president A. Gill Knight claimed in 1918 that it was the finest ground in the southern district. The South Stand, bought from Clapton Orient in 1923, was rebuilt after bomb damage in 1950. Floodlights on eight pylons were switched on in 1960 for a London Charity Cup match against Arsenal. The final first-team game in May 1991 drew 10,002 fans before Crystal Palace won 3–0. Today Reynolds Gate occupies the old stadium site. The development’s six blocks are named after former players, managers and a chairman. A new 20,000-seat stadium opened in 2020 about 200 yards away on the site of the Wimbledon Greyhound track. The area now combines modern housing with the memory of a century of football history.