Kenilworth Road - Luton - The Stadium Guide

Kenilworth Road

Key facts

Club: Luton Town FC | Opening: 1905 | Capacity: 10,226 seats

History and description

Luton Town moved to Kenilworth Road in 1905 about 20 years after the club was formed. The principal stand was a wooden main stand, which burnt down in the 1920s and got replaced by the present main stand.

Kenilworth Road underwent further improvements and expansions in the 1930s when the maximum capacity of about 30,000 places was reached. Floodlights were installed in 1953, and in 1959 the record attendance of 30,069 was set in an FA Cup match versus Blackpool.

Only minor improvements were made to the ground in the next decades. In 1986, Kenilworth Road got converted into an all-seater, and in the same year the Bobbers Stand got replaced by a row of executive boxes. The Kenilworth Road Stand furthermore got its roof added.

In the 1980s, Luton Town was one of the few teams on England to play on artificial turf, which lasted until 1991 when it got banned.

The construction of the small David Preece Stand was the last development to Kenilworth Road and raised capacity back to just over 10,000 seats.

In the last two decades, Luton Town have explored various plans to build a new stadium, but plans initially came to nothing due to a lack of funding. More concrete plans however materialised in 2015, and the club now plans to move to a new stadium in Luton’s town centre at the Power Court site. The new stadium will have a capacity of 17,500 seats. and the club currently hopes to move into the new ground at the start of the 2020-21 season.

How to get to Kenilworth Road

Kenilworth Road is located in a residential area just north-west of Luton town centre. The walk from Luton Central rail station takes 10 to 15 minutes. Regular trains connect Luton Central with London St Pancras International.

If arriving by car from the M1 motorway, the stadium is easiest to find from junction 11. Follow Dunstable Road for just over 2 miles toward the town centre. The stadium lies one block off Dunstable Road on the right hand side.

Address: 1 Maple Road, Luton, LU4 8AW

Luton Town Tickets

Tickets for Luton Town can be bought online, by phone +44 (0) 1582 416976, or in person at the ticket office at Kenilworth Road.

Tickets are also available at the ticket office before the start of the game.

Tickets have the same price of £18.00 for all stands. Email ticketoffice@lutontown.co.uk for more information.

Photos of Kenilworth Road

Relevant Internet links

Lutontown.co.uk – Official website of Luton Town FC.
Luton.gov.uk – Luton tourist information.

Kenilworth Road is as confined as Loftus Road, but with added eccentricities. Comprised of five separate stands, the shape delineated is actually of an irregular hexagon. The A505 (Hatters Way) and the Luton to Dunstable Busway interrupts the Man Stand at an acute angle and the crooked David Preece Stand fills in the gap awkwardly. It has the appearance of a diminutive two-tiered structure that’s been bent in the middle and had the lower tier removed (to provide access). It holds 711 spectators.
The Bobbers Stand is odder still, comprised of what passes for executive boxes. Whose idea was this? It was never a very big stand on account of the housing behind, although it used to accommodate 1,539 seated supporters. I have not been able to find out how many it seats now, but it can’t be much more than a few hundred.
The Oak Road Stand (capacity: 1,800), and the strangeness doesn’t let up. Its roof, pitched, is comprised of three staggered sections that rise in height to meet the Main Stand to its right. The entrance occupies what at one point must have been the ground floors of two neighbouring terraced houses, yet the top floors, and the front doors leading to them, remain intact. Once the fan has passed under these tenements they must climb a set of stairs that offer an intimate view of the terraced gardens either side. (Loftus Road’s surroundings appear boundless by comparison.)
Then there’s the Main Stand, which isn’t without eccentricity either. It appears at first glance fairly cohesive, but not only does it have to put up with the David Preece Stand’s clumsy incursion on its territory, three floodlight pylons blight the lower terrace. These aren’t the spindly stanchions incorporated so successfully at Loftus Road, but more substantial latticed steel affairs. The club’s offices and utilities and the Nick Owen and Eric Morecambe suites are built on the back.
Finally, there’s the Kenilworth Stand, which has a flat roof, 3,229 seats, no significant visual encumbrances and room enough for a carpark out the front.

1 comment

James Evans schreef:
23 januari 2018 om 11:29 am

Kenilworth Road is as confined as Loftus Road, but with added eccentricities. Comprised of five separate stands, the shape delineated is actually of an irregular hexagon. The A505 (Hatters Way) and the Luton to Dunstable Busway interrupts the Man Stand at an acute angle and the crooked David Preece Stand fills in the gap awkwardly. It has the appearance of a diminutive two-tiered structure that’s been bent in the middle and had the lower tier removed (to provide access). It holds 711 spectators.
The Bobbers Stand is odder still, comprised of what passes for executive boxes. Whose idea was this? It was never a very big stand on account of the housing behind, although it used to accommodate 1,539 seated supporters. I have not been able to find out how many it seats now, but it can’t be much more than a few hundred.
The Oak Road Stand (capacity: 1,800), and the strangeness doesn’t let up. Its roof, pitched, is comprised of three staggered sections that rise in height to meet the Main Stand to its right. The entrance occupies what at one point must have been the ground floors of two neighbouring terraced houses, yet the top floors, and the front doors leading to them, remain intact. Once the fan has passed under these tenements they must climb a set of stairs that offer an intimate view of the terraced gardens either side. (Loftus Road’s surroundings appear boundless by comparison.)
Then there’s the Main Stand, which isn’t without eccentricity either. It appears at first glance fairly cohesive, but not only does it have to put up with the David Preece Stand’s clumsy incursion on its territory, three floodlight pylons blight the lower terrace. These aren’t the spindly stanchions incorporated so successfully at Loftus Road, but more substantial latticed steel affairs. The club’s offices and utilities and the Nick Owen and Eric Morecambe suites are built on the back.
Finally, there’s the Kenilworth Stand, which has a flat roof, 3,229 seats, no significant visual encumbrances and room enough for a carpark out the front.