West Ham stadium to become 700-home village

London Evening Standard/LondonWest Ham’s historic home is to be turned into an East End “village” of up to 700 homes in the biggest ever London football stadium redevelopment. The club yesterday revealed it has sold the Boleyn Ground in a deal with property firm Galliard.West Ham is moving to the Olympic Stadium in time for the 2016-17 season.No financial details have been disclosed but it is believed that the club will raise less than the £71.2mn that the 35,016 all-seater stadium at Upton Park is valued in its accounts.However, fully developed the site - home to the Hammers since 1904 - will be worth hundreds of millions of pounds with the apartments expected to prove attractive to fans, investors and other buyers desperate to get a foothold in the London property market. Blocks of flats will be built around central public gardens where the pitch is currently laid, following the example of Arsenal’s former Highbury home.The development in the heart of Newham will have a strong “claret and blue” theme to “honour the history” of a location where greats such as Bobby Moore, Sir Trevor Brooking, Sir Geoff Hurst and Billy Bonds once played.The gardens will be named after Moore and there will be a statue of him there. There are plans to ask fans and local residents to vote on naming apartment blocks after West Ham “legends” or key events in the club’s history.The Garden of Remembrance where the ashes of dozens of Hammers fans are scattered will be “retained, protected and incorporated into the development.” Moore’s daughter, Roberta Moore, said: “I have always believed there should be some form of permanent West Ham United presence at the Boleyn Ground site after the team leave and I’m really pleased that the centre point of the development will be named in honour of my father.”As well as flats there will be shops and restaurants. Details of how much affordable housing will be included in the scheme have still to be agreed through negotiations between Galliard and Newham council.The outline agreement announced yesterday follows months of competitive bidding for the eight-acre site. It will be the biggest redevelopment of a stadium site.Tottenham’s planned Northumberland Development Project is larger but includes land around its White Hart Lane stadium. It is the latest in a series of regeneration schemes in Newham, which — with the exception of the area around the Olympic Park in Stratford — has missed out on much of the new wealth pouring into other parts of east London.