On the road to…QPR

As with buses, you wait ages for an away game, and then two come along at once. If you can call one of the myriad London derbies that there are in this season’s Premier League an away game that is. I mean, admittedly it isn’t a home game, but given that it’s taken place on a weeknight, and given where I work, it is actually easier for me to get to this away game than it is to get to a home game. Or even home come to that. Still, that’s neither here nor there. The point is it’s my first time back to one of my favourite grounds in the thick end of a decade, and the first game in the top flight since 1996 against QPR.

Date: 1st October 2012
Stadium: Loftus Road
Capacity: 18,360
Attendance: 17,363
Away Section: School End Upper
Score: Queen’s Park Rangers 1-2 West Ham United
Nearest station: White City
Local rozzers: Metropolitan Police
Total Travel Cost: N/A (Zone 1-2 Travelcard)

Rail journeys:
Piccadilly Line – South Kensington to Hammersmith (District/Piccadilly) (1973 Stock)
Hammersmith & City Line – Hammersmith (Circle/H&C) to Wood Lane (C69/77 Stock)
Central Line – White City to Oxford Circus (1992 Stock)
Bakerloo Line – Oxford Circus to Charing Cross (1972 Stock)
22:47 – London Charing Cross to New Cross (Southeastern Class 376 Electrostar)

Station to Stadium: Loftus Road is one of those grounds that you almost have to dig up to find, it’s so well hidden behind houses and flats. Indeed, if it weren’t for the floodlight pylons, and the main entrance on South Africa Road saying “Loftus Road Stadium”, you could well miss it altogether. That being said, if you know where it is (and as always, following the crowd is a good bet), then you’ll know how to get there. For me it is to head down Wood Lane, away from Television Centre and the two tube stations and towards the Westway, before turning left into South Africa Road. You will be able to follow this all the way to the stadium’s main entrance. However, for this season away supporters have been stuck with just the upper tier of the School End, which involves walking from the South Africa Road side of the stadium to the Ellerslie Road side.

Anything Else?: Wood Lane is the second station on the Hammersmith & City line to bear the name; the first was opened in 1908 to serve the Summer Olympics and Franco-British Exhibition, renamed White City in 1947 and closed in 1959.

Wood Lane tube station

White City tube station