Over the summer, a row of gardens in Bedfordshire gathered a disproportionate amount of attention.
The terraced house backyards sit behind Luton Town FC’s Kenilworth Road stadium and, as the club flirted with promotion to the Premier League, excitement grew at the prospect of a team joining English football’s elite with such an unusual ground.
Pictures of the entrance to the away end of Kenilworth Road, that twists between local residents’ sheds and clotheslines, were shared with such abundance the club’s chief executive Gary Sweet even got fed up with it.
“[Manchester City striker] Erling Haaland’s not going to walk through that entrance, he’s going to walk through the other s*** entrance we’ve got. There isn’t a great entrance here. This is what we’ve got, embrace it,” the club CEO said.
Despite all the attention, there has been sparse insight into what it’s like to actually live in a home that is essentially part of the stadium.
But speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk Monwar Ahmed, who has lived in a house backing onto the Oak End Stand, was happy to lift the lid on what it’s like to have football club as your literal next-door neighbour.
“You can feel the noise,” he explained “The walls shake when there’s a goal, especially when it’s Luton.”
Monwar said he didn’t find it too intrusive being so close to the stadium as there weren’t really too many vantage points to see into the house itself.
“There’s a garden between the stadium [and the house] the top is fully blocked off. So it wasn’t disturbing from that side it’s just the noise.”
Although he didn’t mind being so close to the action, Monwar did move from his home within the Oak End Stand to a place opposite, it’s just as well he’s a little further back because this year with the club in the Premier League noise levels have been louder then ever.
“Before I was moving I knew there was a football stadium so there will be some noise. Mentally my family and children were prepared for that.
“But that was in the Championship it wasn’t a full house, now every match is.
“It’s in limelight, they are in the premier league and big teams are coming. So it’s now it’s more crowded.”
Monwar says the excitement of being in the English Premier League has reached his household.
“The big matches are coming,” he continued. ”Like Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool. They didn’t play here yet so we are waiting for those matches.
“My son is a fan of Erling Haaland, he wants to meet him. So when City come I told him we can try and get tickets.”
Most of the time Monwar doesn’t mind living so close to a football stadium, but there are times it is a bit of an inconvenience.
“Some games are late, like eight o’clock, so it all finishes around 11 that’s disturbing for children if they have school,” he said.
The heavy police and security presence on match days means Monwar rarely feels unsafe, other than having supporters using his bins to dispose of rubbish fans are relatively respectful.
Only once has ever been concerned about visiting supporters; when notorious South Londoners Millwall rolled into town.
“There was a small clash, the shops at the end of the street had their windows broken,” he added.
The roads around Kenilworth Road would be considered fairly narrow even without a football stadium sandwiched between them.
So in order to facilitate the arrival of thousands of spectators, coaches and security it is a requirement of all residents that they move their cars from the street.
Any forgetful neighbours who leave their vehicles on the streets risk being towed.
But as Kenilworth Road is located in the densely populated Bury Park neighbourhood of Luton finding an alternative space is easier said than done.
One local business owner Express.co.uk spoke to told us how he’d had been frantically searching an ever wider area for an available spot ahead of the last home game.
“I parked my car one mile away and was 45 minutes late to open the shop. For local people it’s very difficult,” he explained.
The owner, who declined to be named for fear of upsetting any local clientele who were football fans, said he’d had some more negative experiences with fans.
“You get lots of people urinating on people’s property. There was one time I had just closed the shop and I saw three guys urinating in front one of the houses children could have seen them out the window.”
Do you live beside a famous Stadium and want to share your story? Contact zak.garnerpurkis@reachplc.com
