Polytechnic Stadium (London)
The Polytechnic Stadium is a sports venue on Hartington Road, Chiswick, London. It is the centre piece of the Quintin Hogg Memorial Grounds.
In 1888 Quintin Hogg, built a boathouse at Chiswick, which is used at the finish of the boat race each year. When Hogg died in 1903, an appeal to raise funds for a memorial in his memory took place. The Quintin and Alice Hogg Memorial was built and a piece of land in Chiswick was purchased. In 1936 plans were drawn up for a stadium to be built at the site. The designs were drawn up by Joseph Addison, Head of Architecture at Regent Street Polytechnic. The grandstand is now a grade 2 listed building, but is unused due to it not being able to meet health and safety criteria. In 1938 the sports ground was extended for the stadium to be built by 7.5 acres. The grandstand had a capacity of 658 spectators and contained a restaurant on the first floor. In July 1944 the stadium suffered bomb damage with all the windows blown out and the running track damaged. Behind the stand there is a miniature railway.
From 1938 until 1973 the Polytechnic Marathon finished at the stadium. In the 1963 edition of the marathon a world record was set at the stadium by Leonard Edelen.
Primarily a track and field athletics venue, it hosted the field hockey preliminaries for the 1948 Summer Olympics.
It was the home stadium of rugby league team Fulham RLFC between 1985 and 1990.
