Elm Park was a football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 stadium

Stadium

A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...

 in the West Reading

West Reading, Berkshire

West Reading is a district of the town of Reading in the English county of Berkshire.-Geography:The district has no formal boundaries, but the name is generally used to refer to the area to the west of Reading's town centre, to the north of the suburbs of Coley and Southcote, to the east of the...

 district of the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 town of Reading

Reading, Berkshire

Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....

. It was the home of Reading Football Club

Reading F.C.

Reading Football Club is an English association football club based in the town of Reading, Berkshire who currently play in the Championship...

 from 1896 until 1998, when they moved to the new Madejski Stadium

Madejski Stadium

The Madejski Stadium is a stadium in Reading, Berkshire, England. The stadium is the home of Reading Football Club and to the rugby union club London Irish as tenants. It also provides the finish for the Reading Half Marathon...

.

The ground was situated between Norfolk Road to the north and Tilehurst Road to the south, and between Wantage Road to the west and Suffolk Road to the east. The site is now occupied by a new housing estate

Housing estate

A housing estate is a group of buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Accordingly, a housing estate is usually built by a single contractor, with only a few styles of house or building design, so they tend to be uniform in appearance...

, also called Elm Park.

History

Reading F.C. were formed in 1871. Initially they played at various existing grounds in Reading, including Reading Recreation Ground, Reading Cricket Ground, Coley Park Recreation Ground and Caversham Cricket Ground. The switch to professionalism in 1895 resulted in the need for a bigger ground and the club moved to the purpose-built Elm Park on 5th September 1896. They were to remain there for over 100 years.

The ground's record attendance was set at a 5th round FA Cup

FA Cup

The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...

 game against Brentford F.C.

Brentford F.C.

Brentford Football Club are a professional English football club based in Brentford in the London Borough of Hounslow. They are currently playing in Football League One....

 in 1927, with 33,042 people present. Reading beat Brentford to progress to the 6th round for the first time.

However by 1995, the club had been promoted to Division One

Football League First Division

The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....

 and harboured ambitions for promotion to the Premier League. This introduced a requirement for the club to play at an all-seater stadium, and it was determined that Elm Park was unsuitable to be so converted. The club, led by its chairman John Madejski

John Madejski

Sir John Robert Madejski OBE DL is an English businessman, with commercial interests, spanning property, broadcast media, hotels, restaurants, publishing and football...

, identified a new site at Smallmead near Junction 11 of the M4 motorway

M4 motorway

The M4 motorway links London with South Wales. It is part of the unsigned European route E30. Other major places directly accessible from M4 junctions are Reading, Swindon, Bristol, Newport, Cardiff and Swansea...

, and in 1996 work started on building the new Madejski Stadium.

The last competitive match at Elm Park took place on 3 May 1998, between Reading and Norwich City

Norwich City F.C.

Norwich City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. As of the 2011–12 season, Norwich City are again playing in the Premier League after a six-year absence, having finished as runner up in the Championship in 2010–11 and winning automatic promotion.The...

. Norwich won 1-0. Relocation to the Madejski Stadium took place at the beginning of the 1998-99 season

1998-99 in English football

-Premier League:Manchester United overcame close competition from Arsenal, Aston Villa and Chelsea to win their fifth Premiership title in seven seasons thanks to the comeback of Roy Keane after his long-term injury and a transfer raid totalling nearly £30 million which netted Aston Villa striker...

and the Elm Park stadium was demolished soon afterwards to make way for the new housing estate.