A home of pure football, inspired and now owned by passionate fans, Fratton Park is a stadium that has seen every sight. From an FA Cup winning side that went on to face AC Milan in the Europa League right through to League Two title contenders, all in a few short years. It's our latest port of call for our Residence series.
Captured by Kirean Clarke, Fratton Park is a multi-layered home of football beautifully rich in its historic aesthetic ― a stadium that still rings of an exciting future as well as a turbulent past. There's so many elements of this stadium are beautifully unorthodox. Drenched in character from its steel framework of one stand to the wooden cladding of the next, there's typography all over that doesn't stick to one house style. Sign after sign have been added, most in a different font from the last. Stencilled beauty crossing over into re-branded makeover, it's one the appreciator of finer detail can get lost in, over and over again.
Fortress Fratton is most certainly a feast on the eye. Designed by a man who lent his architectural eye to many a stadium across the country, it was Archibald Leitch who blue-printed this colourfully intense theatre for the game to unfold. Now accommodating just over 21,000 spectators, it's a special place that sits at the heart of a city brilliantly proud of it's significance. Rightly so.
From the mock Tudor facade that welcomes you into Fratton Park, this is a unique place of worship for those fans that don its rich blue. Ship shape in generating a heroically fierce atmosphere, this a club that has been re-built by the people, let's hope the success they deserve comes in supply soon. A strong island of success.
Photography by Kieran Clarke for SoccerBible.
