Celebrating 60 years of The Shed
September 2026 marked 60 years to the month that the Fulham Road end was renamed as The Shed. The rest, as they say, is history. To celebrate the occasion, the Chelsea Heritage Partnership laid on a Those Were the Days heritage event in the Stamford Bridge Tea Bar.
On Saturday 12th September, we welcomed visitors to the Tea Bar and the opportunity to catch up with fellow supporters and former players with their shared recollections of iconic moments and memories of The Shed.
We filled the room with matches, memories and memorabilia of The Shed. The Chelsea Museum put on a display shirts of Shed heroes with museum tour guide Billy on hand to chat with visitors.
We are grateful to the many supporters who joined us, with special thanks to Cath McDonnell and David Collis for bringing along their famous 'Hullabaloo' flag.
Official Chelsea historian and Chelsea Heritage Partner Rick Glanvill compiled an informative timeline showcase to demonstrate how The Shed got to where it is today and can be viewed below.
Supporters were invited to share their personal memories of The Shed, and a selection were screened at the event, thanks to Jeremy Lewison, Peter Dale, Tim Rolls and Robert Ransom.
As well as the many visitors, the Tea Bar was also buzzing to the sights and sounds of iconic match footage many Shed supporters will recall with fondness. All our clips were kindly provided by CH Partner James Abba and his Chelsea Lookback site.
Fellow CH Partner Tim Rolls put together a superb booklet with a nostalgic look back at how the 1960s Chelsea support galvanised the team on the road and how individuals got together and created the Shed 'end' to replicate that support at home. But not without its critics....
The humorous booklet (different times...) can be downloaded here, with thanks to Charlie Brooks-Watson and Malcolm Doctor for their invaluable input and to Hugh Hastings and Chelsea FC for the use of additional photos:
Of course, The Shed and its supporters have witnessed many exciting and nerve shredding games over the years, and it is that support which contributes to the unique atmosphere of Stamford Bridge and The Shed in particular. That work to maintain an electric atmosphere the whole ground can get behind continues with the considerable efforts of We are The Shed, who explain their work here:
We are The Shed started in 2014, the morning after Jose Mourinho had commented on the poor atmosphere at Stamford Bridge. The first few years were a slow burner, trying to get supporters involved and get the group big enough to start having serious conversations with the club about what we could do. A series of small, hand-made displays and banners made an appearance.
Our main ambition is to provide a platform for Chelsea supporters to support the team and pay homage to our history and culture in a way everyone can be proud of. We have over 200 active members now, and our hope is that with more supporters involved, the better we can produce pre-match displays that showcase what is means to be Chelsea, which can also act as an ‘education’ for new supporters, players or even staff. We have never wanted to become an English ‘Ultraz’ group and do not dress up in black T-shirts like some London clubs.
Every year we try and take a step up and last season we displayed the flags in The Shed Upper and Lower for every Premier League home game, something we are proud to have done. In the previous two seasons, we also focussed on creating singing sections at European matches. The aim of these sections is to bring like-minded supporters together, like Mick Greenaway and his friends did in the 1960s, and hopefully showcase an ambition of ours to make this a permanent feature at The Bridge.
This year, we are targeting obtaining monthly donations, so that we can better plan, and aim to pack The Shed with even more flags, banners, and displays unique to our club. We could not do any of what we do without the incredible generosity of Chelsea supporters, both in the UK and abroad. Many supporters who cannot attend games regularly frequently reach out to us with donations as their way of playing their part on matchday – we are happy to be a platform for supporters to do this.
Footage of some of the epic Shed flag and banner displays referred to can be viewed here on the Chelsea Supporters' Trust's YouTube channel The Shed 60 Years playlist.
The whole event was a great success thanks to the many supporters who dropped by for a chat and a beer, along with former players John Boyle, Tommy Langley, Dave Lee, Gary Chivers and Jason Cundy, who are always keen to talk everything and anything Chelsea.
Also, thanks to the many people at Chelsea FC and the Chelsea Museum who helped make this event happen, our fellow Chelsea Heritage Partners for their input and contributions and to the Tea Bar staff for their friendly welcome.
Watch this space for news of our next event!
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