Toughsheet Community Stadium

Bolton, United Kingdom

In 1995, Populous was commissioned by Bolton Wanderers Football Club to design a 28,000-seater stadium which would reflect the club’s rediscovered football league success and their aspirations to provide a regional sports and leisure facility for the North West of England.

The stadium was conceived as a single phase development within a single envelope. Each stand comprises two tiers, the lower forming a full bowl. The spectators are located, in true British football ground fashion, as near as possible to the playing field to maintain closeness to the action and to generate an exciting atmosphere.

Sited on ‘grey field’ land which was once a refuse site, the new stadium provides ‘a spectacle in an unspectacular place’. This space is the home of a large retail development, inclusive of leisure facilities and a new rail-stop to link the town centre to the site.