Anfield, home to Liverpool Football Club since 1892, is no ordinary sports venue. The stadium is synonymous with Liverpool and a powerful repository of the history and heritage of ‘England's most successful football club’. This chapter explores that legacy in light of the club's wish to create a new home, either by rebuilding Anfield or relocating to a completely new stadium. Such are the passion and pride of the fans and the local community, and such are the profundity and resonance of the implications throughout the district, the city and across the football world, that this move is something the club is committed to getting right.

STANLEY PARK AND THE GENESIS OF ANFIELD

The remarkable history of Liverpool FC and its Anfield stadium are woven into the fabric of the surrounding area, in particular that of Stanley Park. Opened in 1870, and explicitly dedicated to the recreation of working people, the park's grounds were landscaped by Edward Kemp (1817–1891) and the buildings designed by Borough Surveyor E R Robson (1835–1917) (Layton-Jones and Lee 2008). One year later, only a short walk from Stanley Park, the first services were held at the newly constructed St Domingo Methodist Chapel (now demolished), located at the junction between Breckfield Road North and St Domingo Vale in Everton.