Hurlingham Park

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Hurlingham Park is a multi-use stadium in Fulham, London [1]. It is currently used mostly for football matches and athletics events [2]. It is best known as the location for Monty Python's Upper Class Twit of the Year sketch. The venue opened in 1879, the same year as Fulham F.C. were established, who are thought to have played here when it was still a boy's church side. It had a seated capacity of around 2,500 people until the stands were torn down in 2002.

[edit] A Proud History

The opening meeting of the track was on 11 September 1954 which was the same date that the area became a public park. The track used to be proper cinder but the surface as of summer 2003 is now better described as now a firm slightly overgrown dirt track although this is an improvement on a few years ago when it was essentially overgrown fairly short grass. There are however painted lane markings and a 5 lane track is marked. The inside lane is not used as this has been ploughed up. The field on which the track is situated was originally a polo ground and was compulsorily purchased from the Hurlingham Club after World War Two. A grandstand was built in 1936 and replaced an earlier version but became run down in the 1990s and was demolished in 2002. It had a capacity of approx 2500 on bench type seating. The stadium has been replaced by a substantial pavilion. The infield is a well maintained grass pitch and is used for either rugby union or football. The track has a 220y straight on the home straight next to the grandstand which extends past the regular start line although the extension has been fenced off. The track was the base of London AC and the straight was last thought to be used for a race in 1979 when they held a meeting with exactly the same schedule of events as their first open championship in 1879 and thus included a 220 yard straight race. All the runways are synthetic but are badly worn and clearly unusable. The famous Monty Python sketch "The 127th Upper Class Twit of the Year Competition from Hurlingham Park" was filmed here in 1969.