If it wasn't for one man, Liverpool Football Club would never have been born. When Everton left Anfield in a dispute over rent in 1892, club chairman John Houlding stayed behind along with a handful of supporters and just three first-team players. But he was determined to see football continue at the ground. He formed a new club from scratch, chose the name Liverpool… and created a legend.

As the crowds began to flock to Anfield the club built a new stand in 1895 capable of seating 3,000. It was constructed on the site of the present Main Stand and remained until 1973, although many changes were made to it over the years. Another stand was built at the Anfield Road end in 1903, constructed from timber and corrugated iron. After Liverpool had won their second League Championship in 1906 the directors rewarded the fans by building a new banking at the Walton Breck Road. A local journalist, Ernest Edwards, of the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo christened it the Spion Kop, after a famous hill in South Africa where a local regiment had suffered heavy losses during the Boer War.

The ground remained much the same for the next twenty years until 1928 when a major redevelopment occurred. The Kop was redesigned and extended to accommodate 30,000 with a huge roof erected. It was without question the largest Kop in the country, able to hold more supporters than some entire football grounds. The top mast of the Great Eastern, one of the first iron ships, was rescued from the breakers' yard at the Rock Ferry and was painstakingly hauled up the Everton Valley by a team of horses to be erected alongside the new Kop where it stood for many years.

In 1963, the old Kemlyn Road stand was replaced by a cantilevered stand, seating 6,700 and built at a cost of £350,000. A couple of years later alterations were made at the Anfield Road end, turning it into a large covered standing area. But the biggest redevelopment came in 1973 when the old Main Stand was ripped down and a magnificent new one constructed. It was officially opened on 10 March, 1973 by the Duke of Kent.

The next major change came in the early 1990s when a second tier, costing £10 million, was added to the old Kemlyn Road stand, turning it into a magnificent 11,000 all-seater stand. The new stand was equipped with executive boxes, dinning boxes and bars, making it one of the finest stands in the country.

In May 1994 came the most dramatic change of all, with the old Spion Kop torn down to be replaced by an all-seater stand, built to comply with the recommendations of the Taylor Report following the Hillsborough disaster. It was a sad day for Liverpool when they played their final match in front of a noisy flag-waving Kop, knowing that it would never be quite the same again. The times when 27,000 sang and swayed on those great European nights were gone forever. But in its place the club did the fans justice with a new 10,000 all-seater stand that brought the ground's capacity up to 40,000.

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