The Victoria Ground (originally known as the Athletic Ground) was Stoke Citys home since 1878, it was renamed after the Victoria Inn which was across the road from it. The Victoria Ground was a REAL football ground which even when not full used to have the sort of atmosphere that is very rarely witnessed nowadays.
It was the perfect example of an old fashioned football ground, streets surrounding the ground, stands encroaching the pitch, very passionate fans etc etc … unfortunately some of these traits led to its downfall and in 1997 it hosted its final game before Stoke City moved to the Britannia Stadium.
Sadly the football club seem to have forgotten their roots and despite trawling the official site for 15 minutes I couldn’t find any mention of the Victoria ground so heres a view for the younger Stokies of how the ground used to look !
The text on the picture reads as follows;
“Stoke Citys Victoria Ground has a capacity of 49,000 with seating for 10,000. The record attendance was set up in March 1937 when a crowd of 51,830 watched the First Division match against Arsenal. The playing surface measures 116 yards by 75 yards. Inset: Jimmy Robertson.”
The picture above is available for sale (along with loads more Stoke football memorabilia) on our main site Footybits, a link to which is at the top of this page.