Newcastle: St James' Park Timeline - A Visual History

St James' Park has been the home of Newcastle United since the club's birth in 1892: it has endured improvements, massive changes to the city and attempts to move it entirely, as well as the distasteful business of renaming it (which still ominously hangs over the stadium even now). Back in the earliest days, St James' was merely a pitch with earth bankings around its perimeter that allowed fans to stand and battle for a position to see the pitch. Today, a towering cathedral-like structure dominates the Newcastle skyline; a fitting crown to a city that is often said to live and breathe football. And in that respect, St James' is a unique thing in the football world today: it's the only Premier League stadium inside the city, and there are few that can compete with its premium placement. As it stands today, St James' Park has a capacity of 52,338, which regularly sells out despite the unrest towards the ownership and management of the club, and the stadium has as much of a personality as the players who strut their stuff on its pitch. In honour of the grand old stadium, this gallery will outline how that could have been a whole lot more if a couple of men, most notably Sir John Hall, had got their way...

In 2014, the club unveiled a giant screen located on the side of the Leazes End, next to the away section. On its debut against Leicester City, the screen decided to come loose and cause the game to be postponed by an hour. Inevitably.