Home Park (Plymouth)

Home Park is a football stadium in Plymouth, England. The ground has been the home of Football League One club Plymouth Argyle since 1901.

General information

Official website: homeparkstadium.com

Arena capacity: 18,600 spectators

Address: Home Park, Plymouth, Devon, England, PL2 3DQ

GPS coordinates for the navigator: 50°23′17″N 4°09′3″W

Year of construction: 1892

Construction cost: £10 million

Field: Fibrelastic Rootzone (Grass) lawn with dimensions of 105 x 70 m

Seating plan of Home Park

The Devonport End

The Devonport End is made up of a single tier of green seating, with a strip of white seats running across the middle of the stand and around the northwest corner.

The cantilever roof at the top means that there are no supporting pillars in this stand and so your view from any seat in the Devonport End is perfectly clear.

A large windshield is in place next to the open southwest corner but does not cover the front rows. There is just a small wall in place here to protect these seats from the elements.

The Lyndhurst Stand

The Lyndhurst Stand seating area is the same height as the adjacent Devonport End and includes both the northeast and northwest corners.

It is a single tier of green seating with the letters PAFC spelt out in white across the central blocks. A sliver of black seating is also used to give each letter a 3D effect.

There are no supporting pillars coming down because of the cantilever roof above, meaning that your view from anywhere inside the Lyndhurst Stand is perfectly clear and well protected from the elements.

The Barn Park End

The Barn Park End is an exact carbon-copy of the Devonport End opposite.

It is a single tier of green seating with a strip of white seats running across the middle of the stand and the northeast corner.

Your view from any seat is perfectly clear from any seat in the stand because of the cantilever roof, and over by the southeast corner is a large windshield, which covers all but the front rows, with just a small wall in place to keep fans here protected.

The Mayflower Grandstand

The Mayflower Grandstand is divided into two tiers, with the lower tier larger than the upper tier and a row of executive boxes separating the two levels from one another. The letters ARGYLE are spelt out in white across the lower tier blocks, and only a few rows at the back of this tier are covered by the Mayflower Grandstand roof. This roof covers the whole upper tier, which contains mostly green seats but has a large white strip running across the middle of it.

Home Park’s dugouts are based down in front of the lower tier whilst the changing rooms and tunnel are away from the stand in the southeast corner.

Your view from anywhere in the lower tier is perfectly clear, but there are supporting pillars coming down at the front of the upper tier. These do no restrict the view too much if you are in the front rows of this tier, but it will restrict your view when further back.

Large windshields cover every row in the upper tier, whilst the lower tier seats are left completely exposed from the sides.

Away Fans

Away fans are housed behind the goal in the Barn Park End.

Plymouth use stewards and large sheets to segregate the away section from home fans nearby, and the location of these sheets varies depending on how big the travelling crowd is. Small away supports tend to congregate at the back, whilst larger crowds take up the whole section.

You are treated to a perfectly clear view of the pitch from any seat in this away section, with almost all the rows well protected by a windshield next to the stadium’s southwest corner.

Where to buy tickets?

Prices for Plymouth Argyle matches are nice and easy to understand, with no change in cost brought in for sitting in different parts of the ground. The only things that affect the cost are when you buy your ticket and how old you are.

Matches aren’t categorized in the traditional sense, but when The Green Army go up against one of the club’s main rivals such as Portsmouth or Bristol Rovers, all ticket prices go up by a pound to fund the cost of extra stewarding and policing for the event.

Plymouth Argyle tickets are available online, over the telephone and from the club’s ticket office in person. They will take an extra £1.35 per ticket from you for booking online or over the phone, and if you want your ticket posting it will cost you a pound.

How to get there?

Plymouth is on the South coast, so depending on where you live it’s either likely to be dead close to you or dead far away. Here are some of the travel options.

Train

Plymouth Railway Station is about one and a half miles away, so either grab a taxi or embark on the 20-minute walk. As you come out of the station turn right and down the hill and under the railway bridge. Just keep walking straight along this road (A386) and you will eventually reach the ground on your right.

Alternatively (except for night games), turn right into Central Park Avenue, at the roundabout just downhill from the station on the A386. Then take the second left into Holdsworth Street, which will lead you up a steep hill into Central Park, where you’ll see the ground as soon as you reach the top of the hill. It is a lot nicer route than following the roads – after all (apart from Aldershot) there are no other league clubs situated in a public park! It’s a much nicer walk than going up Alma Road and quicker as well.

Bus

Buses from Plymouth city centre to Milehouse will take you to the stadium, should you not fancy the walk.

Car

Take the M5 to the South West and at the end of the motorway continue onto the A38 (The ground is well signposted from the outskirts of Plymouth on the A38). On entering Plymouth, turn left onto the A386 (towards Plymouth). When this road splits into two, keep on the left hand side (again signposted Plymouth) and after about a mile, you will see the ground on your left. The ground is well signposted ‘Plymouth Argyle Home Park’ on the way into Plymouth.

Taxi

Getting a taxi from the train station to the ground will take less than ten minutes and should cost no more than £11.

Parking

There is quite a large car park at the ground, which is free. However, this facility is now shared with a Plymouth City Centre ‘Park & Ride’ scheme, which means on most Saturday afternoons the car park is normally full before 1pm. Also, it can take some time (up to 30 minutes) to exit after the match has finished. Alternatively, there is another large car park at the nearby Plymouth Life Centre, which is free to use. As you go past Home Park on your left and then the Life Centre, go through a set of traffic lights and at the next traffic lights turn left (signposted Life Centre) for the car park. But again this car park fills up quite early and especially if there is an event also going on at the Life Centre.

Note that both these car parks are under the control of the local Council and if vehicles are not parked correctly in the marked bays, then you may end up with a £75 parking ticket for your trouble. So don’t think about parking on a grass verge etc. The Council Parking Wardens are out in force on matchdays, so you have been warned. Alternatively, there is some street parking on roads off Segrave Road (opposite Home Park), or on side roads off the main Outland Road (A386), heading away from the city centre towards the A38. There is also the option of renting a private driveway near Home Park via YourParkingSpace.co.uk.

Where to eat and sleep?

Plymouth offers the usual amount of Bed & Breakfasts and hotels that you’d expect to find in a coastal town. Here are some of our favourites.

1. One Caprera Guest House. Less than a mile from the ground is the One Caprera, which is only small so you will get a more personal service (not like that – filth). It has free Wi-Fi and previous guests rave about it.
2. Alma Lodge Guest House. Named after the road on which it stands is this three and a half star B&B with just five guest rooms. You’ll get a full English breakfast included with the cost of your room as well as free Wi-Fi and free parking.
3. Jurys Inn Plymouth. A mile and a half from the ground is this chain hotel that abandons any pretense of the provincial that our previous hotels offered. It has 247 rooms, a restaurant, a bar, self-parking, 11 meeting rooms and a conference space. There’s also free Wi-Fi, of course.

Seaside towns often have delightful seaside free houses in which to enjoy a seaside shandy. Here are some of our favourites.

1. The Britannia Inn. Not far from the ground is JD Wetherspoon pub. It’s nice, in a Wetherspoon sort of way, with a swirly whirly carpet that helps you to drift off to a different world in which Argyle win every match and you are a multi-millionaire. There’s cheap food and drinks on offer too, obviously.
2. The Cherry Tree Pub. The Cherry Tree is a cracking, modern club with a good menu and friendly bar staff. There are also plenty of TV screens that promise any live sport you can wish to watch legally.
3. The Hyde Park. The Hyde Park is a natty little place with real personality. They serve tasty food and have a great drinks selection, with the walls adorned with memorabilia from the numerous breweries and drinks makers in the area. There are also a couple of TVs that you might be able to persuade the owners to put some sport on if you ask nicely.

Facilities

The facilities at Home Park are very good even if they’re not excellent. You’ll get all of the usual things you’d expect from a decent stadium apart from the fact that the concourses aren’t particularly large.

The Tribute Legends Lounge is the main hospitality section at Home Park. You’ll enjoy a three-course meal with a pre-match host keeping you up to date with what’s going on, and also get to witness club legends provide you with some entertainment. There’s also a quiz before the game with a free round of drinks for the winners. Finally, your day will be rounded off with the opportunity to watch the Man Of The Match presentation.

Plymouth Argyle weirdly refer to their events packages as ‘Non Match-Day Hospitality’, though what you get is largely the same whatever name they call it. Christenings, birthday parties, conferences, product launches and presentations have all been held at Home Park in the past with great success. They say they will make each event unique, so rather than pre-package options for you, it sounds as though they will tailor the day to fit your needs.

History

Home Park as it is today is a very different proposition to the ground that stood in its place when it opened in 1893. Aside from anything else, that original ground was almost entirely destroyed by bombs in the Second World War, as German planes made efforts to disrupt the British Navy by bombing Plymouth harbour. It was rebuilt in time for the return of football after the war.

The stadium went through more renovation plans at the turn of the millennium. The new Devonport End opened in 2001, as did the redeveloped Barn Park End. The Lyndhurst Stand was rebuilt and reopened the following year. In 2007, they added temporary seats to The Mayflower enclosure and in 2009, the ground was selected to be one of the stadiums used should England win the right to host the World Cup. It didn’t, and the club entered into administration in 2011, at which point the council bought the ground and leased it to the club for £135,000 annually.