Windsor Park’s first game was played in 1905, and attendance reached its peak in the 1960’s when the stadium was packed with supporters who turned out to watch the national side take on all-comers, helped first by Tottenham Hotspur captain Danny Blanchflower, then Manchester United’s legendary forward George Best.
In common with many other areas of Belfast, the area has several murals, but the ones at Windsor Park do not depict paramilitaries or other legacies of the Troubles. These murals depict Blanchflower, Best and Doncaster Rovers player Peter Doherty and several other Northern Ireland greats - they can be seen on a footbridge linking the ground to the nearby Adelaide railway station.
After several football disasters in England and Europe in the 1980s, the stands became converted into an all-seater stadium, bringing the capacity down to just over 10,000.
In 2009, the Irish Football Association announced it had commissioned a major redevelopment of Windsor Park. The building work took place in early 2015, with the demolition of the 80-year-old South Stand and the East Stand, to be replaced by larger, up-to-date facilities including new dressing rooms, medical facilities and an administration area, with a total capacity of 18,500 seats.
