West Ham United are pleased to announce that, following careful consideration, the messages on the Commemorative Bricks currently outside the Boleyn Ground are to be transferred to Champions Place on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Champions Place will become the new landmark outside West Ham’s magnificent new Stadium, and is also planned to be the home of the Champions Statue, as well as a number of individual sections dedicated to other Club legends.
Around these sections will be laid thousands of granite stones inscribed with messages by West Ham fans who have chosen to leave their permanent mark in history as the Club prepares to start a new chapter at the world-famous, 54,000-seater Stadium next year.
In order to ensure that the memories of those individuals currently remembered at the Boleyn Ground should be preserved at the Club’s new Stadium for generations to come, West Ham have decided that each message on the Commemorative Bricks will be inscribed on a brand new Champions Place Stone.
The Club believes that this landscaped area of the new Stadium – a place for Hammers fans to meet and pay homage to their heroes – will be the most appropriate location to leave a permanent, individual tribute, engraved in granite, to all those loved ones.
The Club will take on all the costs of this process, as part of its on-going commitment to ensure the new Stadium looks and feels, unmistakably, like the home of West Ham United.
Inevitably, the Club’s decision regarding the Commemorative Bricks will reduce the number of Champions Place Stones available for other West Ham fans to buy, but if you would like to secure your stone and make your mark on history, please visit championsplace.whufc.com and place your order today. For general enquiries and customer service-related queries, please call 03333 442252.
In consultation with West Ham's Chaplain, Reverend Alan Bolding, the Club are also planning to hold a special memorial service during the final season at the Boleyn Ground for everyone who is currently remembered there or whose ashes were scattered on the pitch, the terraces or the Memorial Garden in the past.
West Ham will publicise this service widely in the local media, the matchday programme, the Club’s website and other social media channels, so that everyone who may wish to attend has the opportunity to do so.
The answers to some FAQs about this process can be found below.
FAQs
Will we have to pay for a new stone to have our message transferred?
No, West Ham will take care of all the costs involved in full.
When will the new stones be laid?
The stones will be laid and unveiled before the first West Ham home fixture of the 2016/17 season. Full information about that unveiling will be published on whufc.com in due course.
How will we know where to find our new stone?
The Club holds contact details for all individuals or groups who purchased Commemorative Bricks, and, in the first instance, those details will be used to pass on information about the location of the new stones in Champions Place.
If you know that those details are now out of date, or if you do not hear from the Club prior to the opening of Champions Place, please contact [email protected] with details of the message that was on your Brick, and they will inform you where your new stone will be located.
Can we change the message that will go on our new stone?
Unfortunately not. The Club feel that it is fitting, both as a historical record and for posterity, that the very same messages which have graced the Boleyn Ground for many years join us at the new Stadium on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
However, it is possible to purchase an additional Champions Place stone if you wish to add a new message from the Champions Place online store here.
Why can’t the bricks be transferred in their current form?
West Ham looked into that possibility, but given the age and condition of the bricks, the process of dismantling and reassembling them would have resulted in irreparable damage, in addition to which there would have been no appropriate place to incorporate them in their current form into the new Stadium or its surroundings.
Can we retrieve our individual brick as a memento?
Unfortunately, it would be impossible to extract individual bricks from the group in their current form without damaging those around them, which, clearly, would be disrespectful to other supporters.