Villa Park Capacity

[PeterWithesShin]

And half the Lower North would be empty.

[Clampy]

It's why a standing area somewhere would be a good idea.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

It's why a standing area somewhere would be a good idea.

This idea had a standing area. I blame Kaiser Bill that we haven't got it.

[dave.woodhall]

It's why a standing area somewhere would be a good idea.

This idea had a standing area. I blame Kaiser Bill that we haven't got it.

That's the 1940s plans. Blame Hitler for that.

[Des Little]

That Adolf has a lot to answer for.  Is that Doug's roller I can see in the car park?

[maidstonevillain]

It's why a standing area somewhere would be a good idea.

This idea had a standing area. I blame Kaiser Bill that we haven't got it.

That's the 1940s plans. Blame Hitler for that.

Other than redeveloping the Witton Lane End, isn't that we we got by 1940. The Holte End shown is the pre-1990 Holte End without the roof.

[dave.woodhall]

Sorry, my mistake; that's the Leitch plans from 1914. Note that the finished Trinity Road was even more elaborate than his original idea. The pre-World War One plans for a capacity of 120,000 were on an ever grander scale and (I think) included keeping the cycle track.

[Villa in Denmark]

I'm sure I've seen a drawing of the planned 120,000  capacity stadium that had an old Wembley style bowl effect, presumably because of plans to keep the cycle track.

[Smirker]

Didn't Lerner say there were plans to redevelop the North Stand? Is that unlikely to happen now?

[MarkM]

Didn't Lerner say there were plans to redevelop the North Stand? Is that unlikely to happen now?

Not really much point as we can't fill the stands we have very often.

I would rather the investment go on the squad

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

It's why a standing area somewhere would be a good idea.

This idea had a standing area. I blame Kaiser Bill that we haven't got it.

That's the 1940s plans. Blame Hitler for that.

Are you sure ?  They were Archibald Leitch plans as shown in the bottom RH corner. 

"Before Leitch, Villa Park was an oval-shaped ground with a cycle track and a single stand. At one match in 1913 it managed to
accommodate 59,740. But it had been an uncomfortable crush. The Leitch perspective above, presented to shareholders in June
1914, proposed removing the track – a move bitterly opposed by the city’s cycle enthusiasts – and creating a rectangular ground.
Many a Victorian ground underwent a similar remodelling to cater for the football boom. The structures Villa chose to retain were the barrel-roofed Witton Lane Stand, designed by EB Holmes in 1897, and, on the left, the fanciful brick buildings left over from the Aston Lower Grounds Company. Designed by Thomas Naden in 1878 in a Byzantine, style, before Villa turned them into the club offices and a gymnasium they housed an aquarium, menagerie, café and mineral water manufactory. For many years their faded majesty pervaded Aston Villa’s culture and identity, until finally they were demolished in the late 1970s. The adjacent bowling
green was lost too, in 1966. Note that Leitch’s original design for Trinity Road did not feature a roof gable or a central stairway,
both of which appeared when the stand was finally built in 1922. Of the two end terraces, only the Holte End (right) was built, raising Villa Park’s capacity to 76,000. But neither Rinder nor Leitch lived to see it finished. Work did not begin until 1939, some 25 years after the drawing"

http://www.playedinbritain.co.uk/pdf/engineering-archie-140-141.pdf
 

[cdbearsfan]

That's odd. So they started building in 1939 and we got our record attendance in 1946?

So they must have been building during the war. Wasn't that a bit stupid bearing in mind a bomb could easily render all the work pointless?

[dave.woodhall]

That's odd. So they started building in 1939 and we got our record attendance in 1946?

So they must have been building during the war. Wasn't that a bit stupid bearing in mind a bomb could easily render all the work pointless?

The Holte End was extended during the war.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

That's odd. So they started building in 1939 and we got our record attendance in 1946?

So they must have been building during the war. Wasn't that a bit stupid bearing in mind a bomb could easily render all the work pointless?

There was a crowd over 75,000 at VP in 1938 for a cup game so I doubt if there was exetensive building projects during the war years.
The article seems to infer the larger end terracing was started in 1939, I don't know.
However, if the Villa had decided to build during war time I don't think it would have been pointless.
1) The Luftwaffe preferred to bomb Small Heaths ground.
2) Do you seriously think the Third Reich even at the height of its powers could have took the Holte End ? 

[dave.woodhall]

Bombs were dropped on the Witton Lane stand.