Pre-Roots Hall (1900s–1940s) The site now occupied by Roots Hall is where Southend United had originally played their home games on their formation in 1906. Upon the outbreak of the
First World War the area was designated for storage and Southend were forced out. After the war the club elected to move to a new ground at the
Kursaal and Roots Hall first became a quarry for sand then a tipping site.
Relocation to Roots Hall (1950s) By the early 1950s Southend had moved to
Southend Stadium off Sutton Road. The club did not own the ground and the dog track which encircled the pitch made it unsuitable for use as a football stadium. In 1952 the wasteland at the old Roots Hall site was purchased to build a new stadium for the club. Work on the ground could not begin immediately owing to the large quantities of rubbish which had been dumped on the site in the club's absence, which took nearly a year to clear. The stadium was built by Sid Broomfield and a small band of individuals at a cost of £73,997, supported by a small grant from the FA and funds raised by the Supporters Club. Following construction, the ground was donated to the club by the fans. On 20 August 1955 Roots Hall hosted its first match, against
Norwich City. Roots Hall's construction had not been completed when the ground was opened, with some stands only running for a short distance along the touchline and others waiting to be concreted over. The east stand was extended in both directions so it ran the full length of the touchline in 1966, and around the same time the club installed floodlighting. Finally the ground was finished, and had its finest day in 1979, when a ground record 31,033 fans packed the Hall to watch
Liverpool in action in the FA Cup.
Modernisation (1980s–2010s) By the mid-1980s, however, the club were struggling financially. In an effort to keep the club afloat, most of the south bank was sold off in 1988, and eventually the remainder was replaced in 1994 by a small two tiered all-seater stand, designed by then club chairman Vic Jobson. All this came after the west and east stands saw work in 1992, when the west bank was turned into an all-seated stand and the paddocks in the east had seating attached. The final stage of development at the Hall came in 1995, when the west stand roof was extended at either end to meet the south and north stands, with seating being installed in the north-west corner of the ground. However this period saw no major redevelopment and expenditure on maintenance dwindled to a bare minimum as the club faced
increasing financial woes which would eventually led to visible deterioration around the ground and culminated in capacity restrictions being imposed on the "crumbling" stadium by safety authorities in the 2020s.
Proposed relocation to Fossetts Farm In the 1990s Southend United started planning to leave Roots Hall for a proposed new ground at
Fossetts Farm. In January 2007, the club received planning permission from both
Southend and
Rochford councils for the stadium, retail outlets, a hotel and new training facilities but this was subject to rubber-stamping from the Secretary of State. The Department for Communities and Local Government gave broad approval to the plans in March 2008 Roots Hall has been sold to
Sainsbury's, which has received planning permission to build a new supermarket on the site. Building work on Fossetts Farm was due to start in 2014, however due to issues with the supermarket development, as Sainsbury's had yet to complete the purchase of the former Prospects College site, which was required for access to the new store, work failed to commence. In April 2017 new plans were submitted for the work which no longer involved Sainsbury's. However, it took a further four years before firm plans emerged. Plans were approved in October 2021; the 22,000-capacity stadium would incorporate a 107-bed hotel and high-rise residential blocks of 182 homes on two corners, but in September 2022, the hotel plans were dropped in favour of 42 additional homes, and a revised planning application also outlined plans to lower the stadium capacity to 16,226 seats. Scaled-back plans for the ground were eventually submitted to the council in late March 2023. However, following agreement on the club's sale to the Justin Rees consortium on 3 October 2023, it was proposed the club would remain at Roots Hall, with the 500 homes once planned for the site now transferred to Fossetts Farm. Negotiations over the club's sale continued into mid-2024 as the deal remained conditional upon
Southend Council's approval of property transactions. On 23 May 2024, after a council update, the Rees consortium said it was becoming "increasingly concerned" that processes would not be completed. On 7 June 2024, the new council leader Daniel Cowan blamed the previous administration for assurances that "fell outside of normal practice and were simply not achievable"; a week later, he confirmed the proposed development had failed the council's due diligence process. Citizen Housing and the Martin family were given until 21 June 2024 to respond to new council proposals. Citizen Housing missed the council's deadline, but there was sufficient progress to persuade Cowan to continue negotiations about new heads of terms ready for new due diligence. Nonetheless, the Shrimpers Trust warned that they would start a
phoenix club and make Roots Hall an
asset of community value if needed.
Takeover and redevelopment (2020s) On 19 July 2024 the consortium finally completed its takeover of Southend United. They were able to make this happen by separating the transaction of property from the takeover deal, with Roots Hall initially remaining under Martin's ownership but with a £1 lease agreed for over 20 years, and a path to acquire the freehold "well within that timeframe". Martin will also provide "a significant contribution" for Roots Hall to be developed using the profits acquired from property development at the Fossetts Farm site. The first few weeks under new ownership saw immediate investment to bring the ground up to scratch including a new video scoreboard, new external signage and increased bar capacity. In September 2024 the consortium announced "medium-term" plans to increase the stadium's capacity by opening part of the North Bank to home supporters, to introduce a "Fan Zone" outside the stadium, to replace the floodlights with more efficient LEDs, and to bring forward plans to more widely refurbish the West and South Stands, and replace the East Stand entirely. The North Bank was reopened to home supporters in December 2024 bringing the capacity back up to 10,508 from the 8,800 previous. 815 of this being allocated to away supporters. In June 2025, the club appointed AFL Architects to work on redeveloping Roots Hall, seeking a 'community-driven transformation' of the ground. During April 2026 it was announced that the North West Corner section of the ground had been reopened for home supporters to use, alongside the remainder of Block X. Raising capacity by 901 seats to 11,409. == Structure ==