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Boothferry Park (nicknamed Fer Ark) was a football stadium in Kingston upon Hull, and was home to the football club Hull City for over 50 years from 31 August 1946 until December 2002, when the club moved to a brand-new ground, the Kingston Communications Stadium.

Contents 1 The planning years 2 The ground is opened and building continues 3 Fer Ark

The ground was originally planned in 1929, and work began on the site from 1932 based near the River Humber. Financial difficulties severely hampered this development, with the playing area and part of the terracing appearing over the following 12 months before work and progress ground to a halt. A proposal in 1939 for a sports stadium on the site was the catalyst for further development, as even though this threw up doubt for the original stadium plans, no suitable financial offer for the land was forthcoming, and instead the Hull City board enquired after, and were granted, a Football Association loan to the sum of £6,600. This meant the new ground would be ready for the opening of the 1941 season.

The onset of World War II was to again frustrate the development of the football ground, as during the war, the ground was used by the Home Guard, and was, for a period, used to repair tanks. This, not unexpectedly, had an adverse effect on the playing area - following the end of the war the pitch was in very poor shape and prone to waterlogging.

Building materials were hard to come by in the post-war years for something as "frivolous" as a football stadium in the heavily-bombed city, this and the state of the pitch meant that the ground was still not in a usable state by the 1945/6 season, so the club was forced to return to playing its matches at one of its former homes The Boulevard, home of the rugby club Hull FC.

The ground was opened in August 1946, 17 years after its initial proposal, but only had planning permission for one stand along the west side with an upper cost limit of £17,000. The ground was still not fully completed and it became a race against time to make the stadium ready for its inaugural match against visiting Lincoln City.

Twenty Thousand people gathered to watch the opening ceremony performed by the Lord Mayor. By 1948 the attendance record had swelled to 40,179 as the stadium hosted visitors Middlesbrough in the FA Cup.

The terracing embankments were raised and by February 1949 a ground and club record which still stands was hit - 55,019 turned out to watch Hull play Manchester United. Due to the overwhelming crowd, ferries had to be employed to take fans away from the ground as the streets near 'Fer Ark' became clogged. This gave the team one of their nicknames, The Ferrymen, which can be seen as a double entendre on Boothferry Park as well.

The locally famous Boothferry Halt opened in 1951. The ground now had its own railway station, its first use being a fixture against Everton when six trains ran the football service between Paragon Station, Hull's central railway station and Boothferry Park. At the same time, work proceeded on the covering of the North stand.

The East terrace was the next to be covered, albeit with a temporary structure. This temporary structure was never replaced, and stood throughout the years of the ground. With the three stands completed, the ground was now suited to a floodlight installation. Two gantries housing 96 lamps were built, one on the west and one opposite on the east following a licence being granted. Although this lighting system was the envy of many clubs, advancements in stadium lighting came rapidly, and the system soon needed replacement. A six pylon system replaced the old gantries in 1963.

The new lights were used for the first time in 1964, using 4 of the 6 available, in an evening match against Barnsley which ended in a 7-0 win for The Tigers.

The stadium became affectionately known by supporters as "Fer Ark" in its later days, due to the lack of finances for maintenance (which also meant the scoreboard didn't actually show the score throughout the match), which meant that only those letters were illuminated on the large "boothFERry pARK" signage. Another nickname is bothferry this came around when the second "o" fell off the stadium sign.

The club no longer play at the stadium, which is set for demolition, having moved to the Kingston Communications Stadium in 2002. It's likely that the ground will make way for a housing development, though plans are complicated by the presence of a Kwik Save supermarket which comprises part of the stadium's structure.